Electrophysiological correlates of working memory performance in the course of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Aims: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is primarily a motor system disease. However, despite the motor neuron degeneration, these patients also develop cognitive impairments including executive dysfunctions, in particular working memory and fluency. We used serial recordings of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to provide the first assessment of longitudinal changes in working memory in patients with ALS compared to controls. Methods: For that purpose we examined ALS patients in a visual working memory task while the electroencephalogram (EEG) was measured. To investigate the progression of ALS related co…