Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD) – a worry about one’s own cognition declining beyond normal age-related decline, in the absence of cognitive deficits in neuropsychological tests – is associated with an increased risk for actual cognitive decline at a later time. Hence, SCD may represent pre-clinical stage of dementia. In the present study, we examined whether event-related potential (ERP)-markers of episodic encoding show altered patterns in individuals with SCD versus a control group, potentially being more sensitive to subtle neurocognitive changes in this group. A community sample of 23 individuals with SCD and 23 controls memorized object pairs under interactive imagery instructions, followed by an associative recognition task. There were no statistically significant group differences in neuropsychological test scores or in memory performance. However, the groups differed in the amplitude of the frontal slow wave during memory encoding, and while the frontal slow wave showed a negative-going subsequent memory effect (SME) in the control group, this SME was absent in the SCD group. Memory-related ERP activity may be a more sensitive marker of pre-clinical stages of dementia than behavioral measures.