Developmental Changes in ERP Preceding Movement are not Affected by Temporal Aspects of the Response

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the developmental changes in event-related potentials (ERPs) preceding movement are not affected by temporal aspects of the response. Waveforms preceding right thumb flexion have been found to vary with development and mental retardation. Adults had typical negative-going waveforms. In contrast, young children had a biphasic waveform with positive components at 600 and 150 msec prior to movement. Mentally retarded young adults often had uniphasic positive-going waveforms. Pre-adolescents are variable, exhibiting waveforms similar to all 3 other groups. Subjects are instructed to press and release a hand-held button every few seconds but not to count or try to pace their presses. A demonstration is given and a few practice presses are allowed to assure proper performance. There are no explicit instructions as to how long to press or interval among presses except those implied by the demonstration. If during the task, however, the subject began pressing too rapidly (less than about 2 sec among presses) or appeared too rhythmical in responses is stopped and reinstructed. For each subject press durations and interresponse intervals are determined for each trial.