Mismatch negativity in essential tremor: Role of age at onset in pre-attentive auditory discrimination

摘要

Objective: To investigate whether pre-attentive auditory discrimination is impaired in patients with essential tremor (ET) and to evaluate the role of age at onset in this function. Methods: Seventeen non-demented patients with ET and seventeen age- and sex-matched healthy controls underwent an EEG recording during a classical auditory MMN paradigm. Results: MMN latency was significantly prolonged in patients with elderly-onset ET (>65. years) (p= 0.046), while no differences emerged in either latency or amplitude between young-onset ET patients and controls. Conclusions: This study represents a tentative indication of a dysfunction of auditory automatic change detection in elderly-onset ET patients, pointing to a selective attentive deficit in this subgroup of ET patients. Significance: The delay in pre-attentive auditory discrimination, which affects elderly-onset ET patients alone, further supports the hypothesis that ET represents a heterogeneous family of diseases united by tremor; these diseases are characterized by cognitive differences that may range from a disturbance in a selective cognitive function, such as the automatic part of the orienting response, to more widespread and complex cognitive dysfunctions.