The Effects of Scopolamine on Event‐Related Potentials in a Continuous Recognition Memory Task

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Abstract
Event‐related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during a task requiring continuous recognition memory for visually‐presented words. Twelve subjects each performed the task twice, once following the administration of scopolamine, and once after receiving a saline placebo. In the placebo condition, correctly detected “old” words (i.e., words that had been presented once before during the task) evoked more positive‐going ERPs than did “new” words. Scopolamine caused a substantial impairment in task performance, but did not reduce the size of these old‐word/new‐word ERP differences. It is concluded that old/new ERP effects are unlikely to reflect cholinergically‐mediated neural activity underlying normal recognition memory.