1 Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute-IDIBELL, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, 08907 Barcelona, Spain; Neuro-Oncology Unit, Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge-ICO L'Hospitalet-IDIBELL, 08907 Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: msimo@iconcologia.net.
2 Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute-IDIBELL, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, 08907 Barcelona, Spain.
3 Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute-IDIBELL, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, 08907 Barcelona, Spain; Laboratory for Motor Learning and Neural Plasticity, Concordia University, HUB 1R6 Montreal, QC, Canada.
4 Neuro-Oncology Unit, Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge-ICO L'Hospitalet-IDIBELL, 08907 Barcelona, Spain.
5 Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute-IDIBELL, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, 08907 Barcelona, Spain; Dept. of Cognition, Development and Education Psychology, University of Barcelona, Campus Bellvitge, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, 08907 Barcelona, Spain; Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies, ICREA, 08010 Barcelona, Spain.

No previous event-related potentials (ERPs) study has explored the error-related negativity (ERN) - an ERP component indexing performance monitoring - associated to cancer and chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment in a lung cancer population. The aim of this study was to examine differences in performance monitoring in a small-cell lung cancer group (SCLC, C +) 1-month following chemotherapy and two control groups: a non-small cell lung cancer patient group (NSCLC, C -) prior to chemotherapy and a healthy control group (HC). Seventeen SCLC (C +) underwent a neuropsychological assessment and an ERP study using a flanker and a stop-signal paradigm. This group was compared to fifteen age-, gender- and education-matched NSCLC (C -) and eighteen HC. Between 20 and 30% of patients in both lung cancer groups (C + and C -) met criteria for cognitive impairment. Concerning ERPs, lung cancer patients showed lower overall hit rate and a severe ERN amplitude reduction compared to HC. Lung cancer patients exhibited an abnormal pattern of performance monitoring thus suggesting that chemotherapy and especially cancer itself, may contribute to cognitive deterioration. ERN appeared as an objective laboratory tool sensitive to cognitive dysfunction in cancer population.