1. Findings for Healthy Adults and Depressed Patients
42nd Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research (SPR), October 2-6, 2002, Washington, DC, USA
ERP Old/New Effects During Auditory and Visual Word Recognition Memory Tasks:
Findings for Healthy Adults and Depressed Patients
Jürgen Kayser, Craig Tenke, Regan Fong, Jonathan Stewart, Frederic Quitkin, Gerard Bruder
Department of Biopsychology
New York State Psychiatric Institute
Psychophysiological Laboratory
Columbia University
College of Physicians and Surgeons

2. Background
Temporal resolution of ERPs allows to study memory-retrieval processes in ‘real time’
Typical finding during explicit memory tasks (i.e., judging items as being old or new)
Old/New Effect
Friedman 2000, Biol. Psychol., 54: ms
P600
begins at 300 – 400 ms
lasts 300 – 500 ms N2
mostly posterior
words, pictures, faces, etc.
Difference Waveform
ERP correlate of conscious recollection
overlaps at least two distinct ERP components
scalp distribution ERP old/new effect differs from N400/N2 and P600/P3b topographies

3. Background (cont.)
Few ERP studies of recognition memory in the auditory modality (although similar ERP old/new effects were observed for spoken words or environmental sounds)
Behavioral and neurological evidence suggests that visual and auditory short-term memory processes are distinct and involve separate neural pathways
Price 2000, J. Anat., 197:
ERPs should reflect time course and anatomy of these separate processing streams of
perceptual
linguistic processes
mnemonic
Schizophrenic N1 N2 P3
Kayser et al. 1999, Int. J. Psychophysiology, 34: N1 N2
ERP old/new effect across modalities
within-subjects design
continuous word-recognition memory task
Objective
ERP correlates of word-recognition memory rarely been studied in psychiatric disorders
verbal memory / left MTL impairments in schizophrenia?
dysfunction affects primarily auditory modality
memory / medial temporal (hippocampal) dysfunction in depression?

4. … rock fraction habit paper shock check … rock … time check new item
Continuous Word Recognition Memory Task
Visual
Auditory …
rock
new item
fraction
Exposure
[ms]
400
411
(229 – 718)
habit
filler item
(never-repeated)
paper
lags: 8 items
24 items
V-A-A-V or
A-V-V-A
4 blocks
shock
check
time …
old item
SOA
2,000 ms
228 items/modality
92 filler
68 new/old pairs
456 trials total
rock …
check
forced choice
button press
new old

5. Study 1: Behavioral Data
Gender (male / female) / 8
Age (years) ± 6.2
(24 – 40 yrs)
Handedness (EHI) ± 21.4
Healthy Adults
(N = 16)
Condition
p = .0009
Modality
p < .0001
Condition
p = .01
Modality x Condition
p = .0003

6. ElectroCap (30-channel)
10-20 System EEG Montage (Nose Reference)
ElectroCap
(30-channel)
Nose
Left
Mastoid
Right

7. Study 1: ERP Waveforms Healthy Adults (N = 16)
Visual ERPs were normalized within this modality by vector scaling across time, electrodes, condition and lag following the procedure suggested by McCarthy and Wood (1985).
Kayser et al., in press, Cogn. Brain Res.

8. Study 1: ERP Waveforms Healthy Adults (N = 16)
Auditory ERPs were normalized within this modality by vector scaling across time, electrodes, condition and lag following the procedure suggested by McCarthy and Wood (1985).
Kayser et al., in press, Cogn. Brain Res.

9. Study 1: ERP Difference Waveforms
Healthy Adults
(N = 16)
ERPs were normalized within each modality by vector scaling across time, electrodes, condition and lag following the procedure suggested by McCarthy and Wood (1985).
Kayser et al., in press, Cogn. Brain Res.

10. Study 1: Normalized Surface Potential Topographies
Time interval: – 1,600 ms
Healthy Adults
(N = 16)
Emotional Content
Negative
Neutral
Negative - Neutral
Controls
(n=16)
Patients
(n=30)
Kayser et al., in press, Cogn. Brain Res.

11. Topographies of PCA Factor Scores
Study 1: PCA for ERP Component Measurement
F %
F %
F %
F %
F %
F %
F %
86.5%
Explained Variance
covariance matrix
unrestricted factor extraction
unscaled Varimax rotation
Topographies of PCA Factor Scores
Visual
Auditory
F130
F220
F370
F520
F750
F1000
F1350
-1.4
+1.4
0.0
Kayser et al., in press, Cogn. Brain Res.

12. Study 1: Topographies of PCA Factor Scores
Visual
Auditory
-1.1
+1.1
0.0
-0.7
+0.7
New
Old
Old - New
F520
Visual
Auditory
-1.7
+1.7
0.0
-0.8
+0.8
New
Old
Old - New
F750
Visual
Auditory
-1.1
+1.1
0.0
-0.8
+0.8
New
Old
Old - New

13. Study 2: Demographic Data
Healthy Adults
(n = 26)
Depressed Patients
(n = 24)
no history of any psychopathology or neurology disorder
unmedicated, unipolar depressed outpatients (DSM-IV)
- major depressive disorder (MDD) n = 16
- dysthymic disorder (DYST) n = 3
- both MDD + DYST n = 5
Gender (male/female)
12 / 14
15 / 9
Age (years)
28.7 ± 6.0
(21 – 42 yrs)
35.2 ± 9.6
(20 – 58 yrs)
p = .01
Education (years)
17.0 ± 2.7
15.4 ± 2.1
p = .06
Handedness (EHI)
82.1 ± 18.8
83.0 ± 17.7
Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)
1.5 ± 3.2
26.1 ± 11.1
p < .0001

14. Study 2: Behavioral Data
Healthy Adults
(n = 26)
Depressed Patients
(n = 24)
Condition
p < .0001
Modality x Condition
p = .006
Modality
p < .0001
Modality x Condition
p < .0001

15. Study 2: ERP Waveforms at Selected Sites
Healthy Adults
(n = 26) Pz
Depressed Patients
(n = 24) P9
ERPs were normalized within each modality by vector scaling across time, electrodes, condition and lag following the procedure suggested by McCarthy and Wood (1985).

16. Topographies of PCA Factor Scores
Study 2: PCA for ERP Component Measurement
F %
F %
F %
F %
F %
F %
F %
85.4%
Explained Variance
covariance matrix
unrestricted factor extraction
unscaled Varimax rotation
Topographies of PCA Factor Scores
Visual
Auditory
F125
F250
F360
F500
F790
F1075
F1450
-1.3
+1.3
0.0

17. Study 2: Topographies of PCA Factor Scores
Visual
Auditory
-1.7
+1.7
0.0
-1.0
+1.0
New
Old
Old - New
Healthy Adults
(n = 26)
Depressed Patients
(n = 24)
New
Old
Old - New
-1.7
+1.7
0.0
-1.0
+1.0
Study 2: Topographies of PCA Factor Scores
F360
Visual
Auditory
-1.0
+1.0
0.0
-0.8
+0.8
New
Old
Old - New
New
Old
Old - New
-1.0
+1.0
0.0
-0.8
+0.8
F790
Visual
Auditory
-1.2
+1.2
0.0
-0.8
+0.8
New
Old
Old - New
New
Old
Old - New
-1.2
+1.2
0.0
-0.8
+0.8

18. Nose Linked Mastoids (TP9/10) Nose Linked Mastoids (TP9/10)
Study 2: Re-referenced ERP Waveforms
Healthy Adults
(n = 26)
Nose
Linked Mastoids
(TP9/10)
Nose
Linked Mastoids
(TP9/10)
ERPs were normalized within each modality by vector scaling across time, electrodes, condition and lag following the procedure suggested by McCarthy and Wood (1985).

19. Conclusions
In healthy adults, visual/auditory word recognition memory tasks repeatedly showed:
distinct ERP components
discrete topographies
reflecting anatomy of visual/auditory pathways
The expected old/new effect was observed in both modalities:
comparable time course (maximal between ms)
a more anterior scalp topography for visual items
common cognitive process (i.e., memory retrieval) associated with separable neural generators in each modality
However, the old/new effect overlapped ERP components (N2, P3) having distinct
scalp topographies
peak latencies
for each modality, suggesting a functionally separable process
The posterior old/new effect was markedly reduced in depressed patients for both modalities, but particularly for auditory presentations, despite
identical ERP component structure
comparable behavioral performance to healthy adults
Modality-specific ERP components and condition-effects are severely affected by a recording reference placed over regions where these components are prominent
systematic changes of references
reference-free CSD measures
to dissociate neural generators and their genuine contributions to ERP old/new effects

20. New York State Psychiatric Institute
Department of Biopsychology
Depression Evaluation Service
Jürgen Kayser
Craig Tenke
Regan Fong
Gerard Bruder
JonathanStewart
Frederic Quitkin