Abstract
In oddball tasks, increasing the time between stimuli within a particular condition (target-to-target interval, TTI; nontarget-to-nontarget interval, NNI) systematically enhances N1, P2, and P300 event-related potential (ERP) component amplitudes. This study examined the mechanism underpinning these effects in ERP components recorded from 28 adults who completed a conventional three-tone oddball task. Bivariate correlations, partial correlations and multiple regression explored component changes due to preceding ERP component amplitudes and intervals found within the stimulus series, rather than constraining the task with experimentally constructed intervals, which has been adequately explored in prior studies. Multiple regression showed that for targets, N1 and TTI predicted N2, TTI predicted P3a and P3b, and Processing Negativity (PN), P3b, and TTI predicted reaction time. For rare nontargets, P1 predicted N1, NNI predicted N2, and N1 predicted Slow Wave (SW). Findings show that the mechanism is operating on separate stages of stimulus-processing, suggestive of either increased activation within a number of stimulus-specific pathways, or very long component generator recovery cycles. These results demonstrate the extent to which matching-stimulus intervals influence ERP component amplitudes and behavior in a three-tone oddball task, and should be taken into account when designing similar studies.
Highlights
BackgroundTraditionally, the oddball task is used to study the effects of stimulus novelty and significance on information processing
We hypothesized that interval effects may represent a global refractory period effect progressing throughout the sequential processing stages reflected in the event-related potential (ERP) components
This is suggestive of parallel-processing pathways, some of which are unaffected by TTI/NNI, arguing against a global stimuluspathway recovery cycle mechanism
Summary
BackgroundTraditionally, the oddball task is used to study the effects of stimulus novelty and significance on information processing. Depending on the variant of the oddball task employed, the matching-stimulus interval can contain any combination of nonmatching stimuli or silence. Changing these intervals alters the temporal probability of the stimulus of interest, and the effect of these alterations has been explored in components of the event-related potential (ERP), the P300. In a review of this previous research, Gonsalvez et al (1999) argued that many of those early findings may be attributable to changes in the matching-stimulus interval, as manipulations of stimulus sequence, ISI, and global and temporal probability unavoidably alter the TTI and NNI
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