Event-related potential N270 in detecting cognitive impairment in patients with transient ischemic attack

Latency and amplitude of the visual P300 and N270 were examined in patients with transient ischemic attack (TIA) and in age-matched healthy control subjects to investigate the feasibility of N270 as a clinical examination method to evaluate the cognitive status of patients with TIA. Stimulus pairs with identical (match condition) or different (conflict condition) colors were randomly presented to subjects. Each pair consisted of two sequential stimuli (S1 and S2) that lasted for 300 ms; the onset interval between them was 700 ms. Thirty TIA patients without clinical dementia and 30 age-matched control subjects determined if the two stimuli in a pair had the same color. Subjects were required to press a button in the match condition and another button in the conflict condition. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from their scalp electrodes at the same time. N270 was evoked by the second stimulus (S2) of the conflict condition in either control subjects or patients. The patient group exhibited a delayed N270 than the control group. TIA patients as a group showed cognitive decline. N270 is an effective index to detect the cognitive impairment of TIA patients.