NoGo P3 Research Articles

Methylphenidate selectively modulates one sub-component of the no-go P3 in pediatric ADHD medication responders

Methylphenidate (MPH) has been shown to modulate the amplitude of the no-go P3 component of the event-related potential (ERP; Øgrim, Aasen, & Brunner, 2016). Using group independent component analysis, the no-go P3 from a cued go/no-go task has been separated into two sub-components (Brunner et al., 2013). This study investigated whether sub-components of the no-go P3 could be identified in children with ADHD, and how MPH modulates their amplitudes. ERPs were registered twice (on/off MPH) in 57 children with ADHD classified as medication responders in a four-week medication trial. Two no-go P3 sub-components were identified. In the MPH session, the amplitude of one sub-component, the IC P3no-goearly (mean latency 378 ms, with a central distribution), was significantly larger than at baseline, whereas the other sub-component, the IC P3no-golate (mean latency 428 ms, with a centro-frontal distribution), was not significantly affected. These results add to the literature documenting that the no-go P3 consists of two overlapping phenomena with different functional correlates.

Distress intolerance modulation of neurophysiological markers of cognitive control during a complex go/no-go task.

Distress intolerance (DI), a trait-like individual difference reflective of the inability to endure aversive affective states, is relevant to multiple forms of psychopathology, but its relations to theoretically relevant neurobiological systems have received little attention. Altered cognitive control-related neurobiology has been theorized to underlie individual differences in DI, but little empirical work has been conducted. To test this hypothesis, baseline data from a large community sample with elevated high levels of emotional psychopathology and comorbidity was utilized (N = 256). Participants completed a complex go/no-go task while EEG was recorded, and P2, N2, and P3 amplitudes were measured. Based upon prior findings on the relations between these components and response inhibition, a core cognitive control function, we hypothesized that DI would predict reduced no-go N2 and P3 amplitude while controlling for current anxious/depressive symptom severity (i.e., negative affect). Peak amplitudes from the raw data and principal components analysis were used to quantify amplitude of ERP components. Partially consistent with predictions, high DI was independently associated with reduced no-go N2 peak amplitude in the raw ERP data, and was significantly related to a frontal positivity factor in the N2 time window across no-go and go trials. Contrary to predictions, no relations between DI and the P3 were found. Overall, results support the theorized relevance of cognitive control-linked neurobiology to individual differences in tolerance of distress over and above distress severity itself, and suggest specific relations between DI and alterations in early controlled attention/conflict-monitoring but not response inhibition or response inhibition-related sequelae. (PsycINFO Database Record

EEG frequency PCA in EEG-ERP dynamics.

Principal components analysis (PCA) has long been used to decompose the ERP into components, and these mathematical entities are increasingly accepted as meaningful and useful representatives of the electrophysiological components constituting the ERP. A similar expansion appears to be beginning in regard to decomposition of the EEG amplitude spectrum into frequency components via frequency PCA. However, to date, there has been no exploration of the brain's dynamic EEG-ERP linkages using PCA decomposition to assess components in each measure. Here, we recorded intrinsic EEG in both eyes-closed and eyes-open resting conditions, followed by an equiprobable go/no-go task. Frequency PCA of the EEG, including the nontask resting and within-task prestimulus periods, found seven frequency components within the delta to beta range. These differentially predicted PCA-derived go and no-go N1 and P3 ERP components. This demonstration suggests that it may be beneficial in future brain dynamics studies to implement PCA for the derivation of data-driven components from both the ERP and EEG.

P 116 Methylphendiate effects on the coupling between attentional processes and motor cortex excitability

Introduction Event related potentials (ERPs) allow the examination of sensory, attentional and cognitive processes occurring as brain responses to stimuli while the excitability of motor pathways can be evaluated by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). The interplay between both, attentional processes and motor cortex excitability has been rarely reported in the literature. So far, only two studies used ERP and TMS in combination, focused on inhibition processes and reported compensatory cognitive mechanisms in case of measurement of reduced activation of inhibitory intracortical interneurons in the motor cortex ( Heinrich et al., 2014 , Hoegl et al., 2011 ). Methods This study investigated simultaneously the interaction between neural markers of attention and response control (measured by event related potentials (ERP)) and motor cortical excitability (short interval cortical inhibition, intracortical facilitation and long interval cortical inhibition, by using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)) under different requirement conditions (choice reaction test (CRT), attention/go/nogo) and their pharmacological modulation by methylphenidate (MPH) in normal healthy adults ( n = 31). MPH was administered in a dosage of 1 mg/kg body weight, maximum 60 mg. Additionally, serum level and clearance of MPH were controlled. Results MPH had an effect on attention to targets in early attentional processes (increased Go and No/Go N1 but no effect on Cue N1) and on response inhibition (increased NoGo P3). CNV and Go-P3 were not affected. Cue-P3 was correlated with MPH clearance. Regarding the MPH effects on the interplay of attentional processes with motor cortex excitability, we found an association between MPH induced increase of long interval intracortical facilitation and both, suppressed early attention on cue trials (decreased Cue-N1) and with the increase of response execution control (increased Go-P3). Discussion Taken together, MPH seems to enhance in particular early target-related attentional processes. Furthermore, this study revealed a correlation of MPH-induced changes in motor cortex facilitation with cognitive response execution monitoring, whereas a coupling was absent between inhibitory processes of motor pathways and cognitive response control.

A smoking-related background helps moderate smokers to focus: An event-related potential study using a Go-NoGo task

ObjectiveCognitive impairment is a major component in addiction. However, research has been inconclusive as to whether this is also the case for smokers. The present study aims at providing electrophysiological clue for altered inhibitory control in smokers and at investigating whether reduced inhibition was more pronounced during exposure to a smoking cue. MethodsERPs were recorded during a visual Go-NoGo task performed by 18 smokers and 23 controls, in which either a frequent Go signal (letter “M”) or a rare No-Go signal (“letter W”) were superimposed on three different long-lasting background contexts: black-neutral, smoking-related and non smoking-related. Results(1) Smokers performed worse and had an earlier NoGo-N2 latency as compared to controls and independently of context, suggesting a general inhibition impairment; (2) with smoking-related backgrounds specifically, smokers made fewer mistakes than they did in other contexts and displayed a larger NoGo P3 amplitude. ConclusionThese data might suggest that background cues related to addiction may help smokers to be more accurate in an inhibition task. SignificanceOur results show the classical inhibitory impairment in smokers as compared to non-smokers. However, our data also suggest that a smoking-related background may bolster the inhibitory ability of smokers specifically.

Differences in Inhibitory Control between Impulsive and Premeditated Aggression in Juvenile Inmates.

Inhibitory control dysfunction was considered a universal characteristic of violent offenders. The aim of this study was to examine differences in inhibitory control between two subtypes of violent youth; those displaying predominantly impulsive and those presenting predominantly premeditated aggression (PM). Forty-four juvenile offenders, defined on the basis of the Procedures for the Classification of Aggressive/Violent Acts (Stanford and Barratt, 2001) participated (N = 23: impulsive; N = 21 premeditated). A visual Go/NoGo task was used to compare behavioral responses and event-related potentials (ERPs) between groups. The task contained two letters (W and M), W was the Go stimulus and M the NoGo stimulus. The impulsive youth showed a significantly greater decrease in N2 latency for Go relative to NoGo trials than the premeditated aggressive youth. The differentiation in N2 amplitude between Go and NoGo (N2d) was negatively correlated with impulsivity of aggression. Both groups showed no significant central NoGo P3. Our findings suggest that impulsive violent youth show stronger prepotent responses and impaired conflict monitoring during early inhibitory control processing relative to premeditated aggressive youth. Both impulsive and premeditated violent youth may show impaired response inhibition at the late processing stage of inhibitory control.

Deficits in Go and NoGo P3 potentials in patients with schizophrenia

Cognitive control processes elicited during a cued continuous performance test were evaluated using event-related potentials in 46 patients who were within the first 5 years of diagnosis of schizophrenia, and 29 healthy controls. Patients had longer reaction times, lower hit rates, and higher false alarm rates compared with controls. Patients had an overall P3 amplitude reduction that was more prominent on NoGo compared with Go trials. This greater P3 reduction on NoGo trials was present in central and parietal regions, but was absent in the frontal region, where the P3 reduction was comparable on NoGo and Go trials. Our findings suggest that the neural activity contributing to Go and NoGo P3s are both deteriorated in schizophrenia, but those contributing to central and parietal NoGo P3s are the most severely affected ones. We conclude that the cognitive control processes engaged during execution, and particularly during inhibition of a prepared motor response were disturbed in the early course of schizophrenia. Our findings might be related to our sample being in relatively early stages of schizophrenia and/or related to the use of atypical antipsychotics by most of our patients.

Inhibitory control in euthymic bipolar disorder: Event related potentials during a Go/NoGo task.

Patients with bipolar disorder (BD) are reported to have difficulties with inhibition, even in a euthymic state. However, the literature on cortical activity associated with response inhibition in BD remains ambiguous. This study investigates inhibition in euthymic BD using electrophysiological measures, while controlling for effects of specific medications. Twenty patients with BD were compared with eighteen healthy controls on a Go/NoGo task while electroencephalogram was recorded. Behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measurements were analyzed for the two groups. Medication effects were controlled for in the analysis. Patients with BD had marginally reduced NoGo N2 amplitudes and increased NoGo P3 amplitudes compared with healthy controls when patients using benzodiazepines were excluded from the study. No behavioral differences between the groups were found. Reduced NoGo N2 amplitudes in BD reflect aberrant conflict detection, an early stage of the inhibition process. In addition, increased NoGo P3 amplitudes in BD despite normal task performance reflect an overactive cortical system during a simple inhibition task. Difficulties in early stages of inhibition in BD appear to have been compensated by increased cortical activation. This study extends current knowledge regarding cortical activations relating to inhibition in BD.

Atypical brain activation in children who stutter in a visual Go/Nogo task: An ERP study.

The aim of the study was to investigate inhibitory control by evaluating possible differences in the strength and distribution of the brain activity in a visual Go/Nogo task in children who stutter (CWS) compared to typically developing children (TDC). Eleven CWS and 19 TDC participated. Event related potentials (ERP) were recorded using a 64-channel EEG-cap during an equiprobable visual Go/Nogo task. The global field power (GFP) as well as the mean amplitudes in the P3 time frame were compared between groups. Additionally, the potential maps of the groups were investigated visually in the N2 and P3 time windows. The groups differed significantly in the right frontal area especially in the Nogo condition (p<0.001) with CWS showing smaller (less positive) mean amplitudes, most likely due to a prolonged and asymmetrical N2 component. Also the fronto-central Nogo P3 component was rather indistinct in CWS, but easily recognizable in TDC in the potential maps. The CWS show atypical brain activation compared to the TDC in a Go/Nogo task as indexed by the excessive N2-related activity in both conditions and reduced P3-related activity in Nogo condition. These findings indicate atypical stimulus evaluation and response inhibition processes in CWS.

Go and no-go P3 with rare and frequent stimuli in oddball tasks: A study comparing key-pressing with counting

The P3 component of event-related potentials (ERPs) is large at posterior scalp sites with rare go stimuli (go-P3) and at anterior sites with rare no-go stimuli (no-go P3). Most hypotheses on P3, including our S-R link reactivation notion, imply that these characteristics are independent of specific response modes. This assumption was here investigated by comparing ERPs between key-pressing and covert counting responses in oddball tasks that required responses to either frequent or rare stimuli. Replicating previous results, topographic differences between parietal rare go-P3 and fronto-central rare no-go P3 were much reduced with counting compared to key-press responses. Besides, while go-P3 was generally more positive than no-go P3 in the key-press tasks (except for fronto-central no-go P3 with rare stimuli) the reverse was true in the counting tasks. Thus, the characteristic posterior and fronto-central go and no-go topographies appear to be specific to hand movements. Moreover, P3s evoked in counting tasks might not simply be P3 proper, uncontaminated by movement-related potentials, but rather the go/no-go logic might differ between counting and key-pressing, with the oddball effects being affected by specific processes implemented for these particular response modes.

P.6.d.006 - Gender differences in ‘impulsive choice’ and ‘impulsive action’ among opiate and stimulant users in protracted abstinence

Inhibition of prepotent responses plays a key role in cognitive executive control of goal-directed behavior. Response inhibition in Go/No-Go tasks elicits a distinct midfrontal ERP component, the N2, localized in previous studies to the anterior cingulate cortex. We assessed heritability of the No-Go N2 and the succeeding positive P3 component in 194 young female twins (52 monozygotic and 45 dizygotic pairs) who completed a cued version of the Continuous Performance Test. Genetic model-fitting analysis showed that about 60% of the variance in N2 and P3 amplitudes can be attributed to genetic factors, suggesting that frontal No-Go N2 and P3 components may index genetically transmitted individual differences in brain activity related to conflict processing and can potentially serve as endophenotypes for genetic studies of disorders characterized by neurobehavioral disinhibition.

Automatic emotion regulation in response inhibition: The temporal dynamics of emotion counter-regulation during a go/no-go task.

Recent behavioral studies indicate that emotion counter-regulation automatically allocates attention to events that are opposite in the valence to the experienced emotional state. The present study explored the effect of emotion counter-regulation on response inhibition by using ERPs in a go/no-go paradigm. We recruited 58 subjects and randomly assigned them to either the angry priming group (watching Nanjing Massacre movie clips) or the neutral priming group (watching "mending a computer" movie clips). The behavioral results revealed that participants in the angry priming group responded significantly more accurately to go happy and no-go angry faces than go angry and no-go happy faces. The analyses of ERPs revealed that the amplitudes of the no-go N2 and no-go P3 were significantly larger for the happy faces than for the angry faces in the angry priming group. However, no such effects were found in the neutral priming group. These results suggest that highly aroused angry emotion could prompt a priority response to happy emotion stimuli and restrict the responses to angry emotion stimuli through emotion counter-regulation.

Is P3 a strategic or a tactical component? Relationships of P3 sub-components to response times in oddball tasks with go, no-go and choice responses

P3 (viz. P300) is a most prominent component of event-related EEG potentials recorded during task performance. There has been long-standing debate about whether the process reflected by P3 is tactical or strategic, i.e., required for making the present response or constituting some overarching process. Here, we used residue iteration decomposition (RIDE) to delineate P3 subcomponents time-locked to responses and tested for the temporal relations between P3 components and response times (RTs). Data were obtained in oddball tasks (i.e., tasks presenting two stimuli, one rarely and one frequently) with rare and frequent go, no-go, or choice responses (CRs). As usual, rare-go P3s were large at Pz and rare no-go P3s at FCz. Notably, P3s evoked with rare CRs were large at either site, probably comprising both go and no-go P3. Throughout, with frequent and rare responses, P3 latencies coincided with RTs. RIDE decomposed P3 complexes into a large CPz-focused C-P3 and an earlier Pz-focused response-locked R-P3. R-P3 had an additional large fronto-central focus with rare CRs, modeling the no-go-P3 part, suggesting that the process reflected by no-go P3 is tightly time-locked to making the alternative response. R-P3 coincided with the fast RTs to frequent stimuli and C-P3 coincided with the slower RTs to rare stimuli. Thus, the process reflected by C-P3 might be required for responding to rare events, but not to frequent ones. We argue that these results are nevertheless compatible with a tactical role of P3 because responses may not be contingent on stimulus analysis with frequent stimuli.

Just Swap Out of Negative Vibes? Rumination and Inhibition Deficits in Major Depressive Disorder: Data from Event-Related Potentials Studies.

Major depression is a serious disorder of impaired emotion regulation. Emotion hyperactivity leads to excessive negative ruminations that daily hijack the patient’s mental life, impacting their mood. Evidence from past researches suggest that depressive patients present several cognitive impairments in attention and working memory, leading to a more acute selective attention for negative stimuli and a greater accessibility of negative memories. Recently, is has been proposed that impaired inhibitory functioning with regard to emotional information processing might be one of the mechanisms of ruminations linking memory, attention and depression. It seems that inhibition deficit is present at both the input level (i.e., the ability to reduce the interference from emotional distracters) and the higher level (i.e., the ability to direct the attention away from emotional material that has already been processed) of emotional information processing. Event-related potentials (ERP) have widely been used to study inhibition in adults suffering from various psychopathological states. In particular, depressive disorder has been linked to ERPs modulations, at early as well as at latter stages of the information-processing stream, when processing affective material. For instance, deficits in inhibiting negative information have been indexed by changes in the parameters (amplitudes and latencies) of early P2, P1 and N1 components while other ERP studies have shown an ability to differentiate depressed patients from normal controls based upon response inhibition difficulties in go-nogo tasks, indexed by later NoGo P3 differences. In this review, we will focus on results of ERP studies investigating inhibition and its interaction with emotional related cue processing in depressive populations. Implications for future research and theoretical perspectives will be discussed within the framework of current models of depressive disorder, based upon the hypothesis that negative ruminations are at the center of depression processes.

ERP Correlates of Proactive and Reactive Cognitive Control in Treatment-Naïve Adult ADHD.

This study investigated whether treatment naïve adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD; n = 33; 19 female) differed from healthy controls (n = 31; 17 female) in behavioral performance, event-related potential (ERP) indices of preparatory attention (CueP3 and late CNV), and reactive response control (Go P3, NoGo N2, and NoGo P3) derived from a visual cued Go/NoGo task. On several critical measures, Cue P3, late CNV, and NoGo N2, there were no significant differences between the groups. This indicated normal preparatory processes and conflict monitoring in ADHD patients. However, the patients had attenuated Go P3 and NoGoP3 amplitudes relative to controls, suggesting reduced allocation of attentional resources to processes involved in response control. The patients also had a higher rate of Go signal omission errors, but no other performance decrements compared with controls. Reduced Go P3 and NoGo P3 amplitudes were associated with poorer task performance, particularly in the ADHD group. Notably, the ERPs were not associated with self-reported mood or anxiety. The results provide electrophysiological evidence for reduced effortful engagement of attentional resources to both Go and NoGo signals when reactive response control is needed. The absence of group differences in ERP components indexing proactive control points to impairments in specific aspects of cognitive processes in an untreated adult ADHD cohort. The associations between ERPs and task performance provided additional support for the altered electrophysiological responses.

P300 amplitude alterations during inhibitory control in persons with Mild Cognitive Impairment

Deficits in executive function are highly noticeable in Alzheimer's disease, and recent behavioral studies have shown that such deficits – particularly during inhibitory control – can also be found in persons with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate behavioral and electrophysiological correlates of inhibitory control in persons with MCI. A group of persons with MCI and a group healthy older adults performed a Go/NoGo task while electroencephalogram was recorded. Our results revealed that persons with MCI performed less accurately than healthy controls during the Go and NoGo conditions. In addition, we found reduced P300 amplitudes during Go and NoGo conditions relative to healthy older adults. Our results suggest that neurocognitive mechanisms associated with target detection and evaluation (Go P300) and response inhibition (NoGo P300) are compromised in persons with MCI.

Priority for one's own stimulus in joint performance: evidence from an event-related potential study.

To investigate priority of shared task representations (own vs. other) formed during joint task performance, event-related potentials were recorded while participants performed an auditory three-stimulus oddball task alone (individual condition) and with another participant (joint condition). Participants were required to discriminate between frequent standard tones and rare target tones, while ignoring nontargets assigned to a partner's action (i.e. no-go stimuli for one's own task performance). The parietal P3b was elicited for targets under both conditions. In contrast, P3b for nontargets was observed only in the joint condition, and in addition, it accompanied the frontal no-go P3. This implies that coactors share one another's task representations. Importantly, the emergence of P3b and no-go P3 for nontargets was delayed compared with P3b for targets, suggesting that shared task representations are serially applied to the stimulus processing and that one's own representations precede the other individual's representations.

Intact neural activity during a Go/No-go task is associated with high global functioning in schizophrenia.

Go/No-go derived event-related potential (ERP) signals have been widely used in schizophrenia research to monitor self-control deficits in this disorder. However, no study to date has associated Go/No-go-related ERP with global functioning. Participants consisted of 21 patients with schizophrenia and 22 healthy controls. We used a visual Go/No-go paradigm to measure Go/No-go-related N2/P3 ERP components by means of a 64-electrode cap for electroencephalogram recording. We used the Global Assessment of Functioning to evaluate global functioning and analyzed the correlation between ERP indices and global functioning scores. N2 amplitudes were reduced in patients with schizophrenia, but not influenced by either of the Go/No-go conditions. P3 amplitudes were influenced by the Go/No-go conditions, but not reduced in patients with schizophrenia. Global functioning was correlated with the No-go P3 amplitudes, but not N2 amplitudes, in patients with schizophrenia. These results indicate that global functioning is associated with intact neural activity rather than impaired neural activity during Go/No-go response inhibition tasks in patients with schizophrenia.

Neural Correlates of Response Inhibition in Adolescents Prospectively Predict Regular Tobacco Smoking

ABSTRACTInhibitory deficits have been widely reported in addiction; however, it remains unclear whether such deficits represent a determinant or a consequence of substance use. Here we show, using a prospective longitudinal design, that developmental abnormalities in the neural correlates of response inhibition in adolescents increase the risk for subsequent cigarette smoking. Reduced No-Go P3 amplitude, delayed latency of Go P3 peak, and reduced synchrony of neuronal oscillations at age 14 prospectively predicted regular smoking at age 18. The present findings suggest that functional brain correlates of response inhibition represent a developmental marker of risk for future substance abuse.

Test-retest reliability of ERP components: A short-term replication of a visual Go/NoGo task in ADHD subjects

Event-related potentials (ERPs) have been widely used to investigate brain functioning in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in both research and diagnostic settings. To ensure the efficiency of ERP techniques in ADHD diagnosis and in longitudinal observational studies, the test-retest reliability of the affected population must be validated. Thus, the present article assesses the short-term test-retest reliability of certain early and late ERPs (i.e., P1, N1, N2, P2, P3), as well as independent components (ICs) decomposed from the above mentioned ERPs (IC P3 Go, IC P3 NoGo early, IC P3 NoGo late) relevant to ADHD, through the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC). More specifically, we employ a cued visual Go/NoGo paradigm for recording ERPs from 22 children with ADHD (mean age 12.2), twice within 30min. Amplitudes and latencies are calculated by the ‘peak amplitude’ method and by a variation of the fractional area. Results for amplitudes lie mostly within the ‘good’ and ‘excellent’ range for both measurement methods, while ICC for latencies is more variable ranging from ‘poor’ to ‘excellent’ results. Crucially, the ICs, which are associated with distinct functionally independent processes of the executive attentional system have shown a comparable test-retest reliability with the raw ERPs. Our results are consistent with other reliability studies of neurotypical population in the literature, and as such, consist initial evidence that ERPs could be reliable neurophysiological markers for the ADHD population.