Neural correlates of recognition memory with and without recollection in patients with Alzheimer's disease and healthy controls

To dissociate recognition memory with and without recollection, event-relat ed potentials (ERPs) of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and matched controls were recorded in a test of verbal recognition memory accompanied b y a source judgement. AD patients who had smaller hippocampi showed a disab ility to recollect the study context (source). Their ERPs elicited by corre ctly recognized old words compared to new items were more positive only bet ween 300 and 500 ms with a maximum over the frontal scalp. Controls exhibit ed a sustained world/new effect over left temporoparietal and frontal sites . The present findings suggest that preserved recognition memory in patient s with mild AD is independent of hippocampally mediated processes recollect ing episodic memories. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights re served.