Former neuropsychological studies with Chronic
Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) patients evaluated a broad range
of cognitive functions. Several, but not all, reported
subtle attentional and memory impairments suggesting possible
mild cerebral involvement. In this study, a battery of
attentional tests and a verbal memory task were administered
to 20 CFS patients and 22 healthy controls (HC) in order
to clarify the specific nature of attention and memory
impairment in these patients. The results provide evidence
for attentional dysfunction in patients with CFS as compared
to HC. CFS patients performed more poorly on a span test
measuring attentional capacity and working memory. Speeded
attentional tasks with a more complex element of memory
scanning and divided attention seem to be a sensitive measure
of reduced attentional capacity in these patients. Focused
attention, defined as the ability to attend to a single
stimulus while ignoring irrelevant stimuli, appears not
to be impaired. CFS patients were poorer on recall of verbal
information across learning trials, and poor performance
on delayed recall may be due to poor initial learning and
not only to a retrieval failure. (JINS, 1998,
4, 456–466.)