The attentional blink and P300.

Abstract

The attentional blink (AB) is a brief impairment of visual processing occurring 200-500 ms after a target in a rapid stream of visual stimuli. At issue here is the relationship between AB and the P300 ERP component, as both are maximal at about 300 ms and have been hypothesised to reflect inhibitory processes. Two experiments revealed that AB and P300 follow a similar time course at the individual and group level, that reducing task difficulty has similar effects on AB and P300 magnitude at the group level, but that there is no relationship between the magnitude of AB and P300 within observers. These findings suggest a moderate association between the two phenomena, which may mirror transient inhibition of cortical networks to facilitate processing of target events.