MEMORY-SCANNING EVENT-RELATED POTENTIALS - CORRELATIONS WITH VERBAL AND PERFORMANCE SCORES

Auditory and visual event-related potentials (ERPs) to a digit probe identification task in a modified STERNBERG paradigm have been compared with psychological tests of verbal and performance ability (WAIS) in 19 healthy subjects. We have found a significant correlation between ERP amplitude and test scores. The higher the scores the << more negative >> the responses. Correlations were stimulus-modality dependent. Auditory and visual ERPs were strongly correlated with << verbal >> and << performance >> IQ, respectively. The characteristics of these IQ-dependent electrophysiological features suggest that they may be related to the ability to allocate attention.