Search

2020 Society for Psychophysiological Research To clarify the functional significance of Go event-related potential (ERP) components, this study aimed to explore stimulus- and response-locked ERP averaging effects on the series of ERP components elicited during an auditory Go/NoGo task. Go stimulus- and response-locked ERP data from 126 healthy young adults (Mage = 20.3, SD = 2.8 years, 83 female) were decomposed using temporal principal components analysis (PCA). The extracted components were then identified as stimulus-specific, response-specific, or common to both stimulus- and response-locked data. MANOVAs were then used to test for stimulus- versus response-locked averaging effects on common component amplitudes to determine their primary functional significance (i.e., stimulus- or response-related). Go stimulus- and response-related component amplitudes were then entered into stepwise linear regressions predicting the reaction time (RT), RT variability, and omission errors. Nine ERP components were extracted from the stimulus- and response-locked data, including N1-1, processing negativity (PN), P2, response-related N2 (RN2), motor potential (MP), P3b, P420, and two slow wave components; SW1 and SW2. N1-1, PN, and P2 were stimulus-specific, whereas, RN2, MP, and P420 were response-specific; P3b, SW1, and SW2 were common to both data sets. P3b, SW1, and SW2 were significantly larger in the response-locked data, indicating that they were primarily response-related. RT, RT variability, and omission errors were predicted by various stimulus- and response-related components, providing further insight into ERP markers of auditory information processing and cognitive control. Further, the results of this study indicate the utility of quantifying some common components (i.e., Go P3b, SW1, and SW2) using the response-locked ERP.

Heightened pain sensitivity, the amount of pain experienced in response to a noxious event, is a known risk factor for development of chronic pain. We have previously reported that pain-free, sensorimotor peak alpha frequency (PAF) is a reliable biomarker of pain sensitivity for thermal, prolonged pains lasting tens of minutes. To test whether PAF can provide information about pain sensitivity occurring over clinically relevant timescales (i.e., weeks), EEG was recorded before and while participants experienced a long-lasting pain model, repeated intramuscular injection of nerve growth factor (NGF), that produces progressively developing muscle pain for up to 21 days. We demonstrate that pain-free, sensorimotor PAF is negatively correlated with NGF pain sensitivity; increasingly slower PAF is associated with increasingly greater pain sensitivity. Furthermore, PAF remained stable following NGF injection, indicating that the presence of NGF pain for multiple weeks is not sufficient to induce the PAF slowing reported in chronic pain. In total, our results demonstrate that slower pain-free, sensorimotor PAF is associated with heightened sensitivity to a long-lasting musculoskeletal pain and also suggest that the apparent slowing of PAF in chronic pain may reflect predisease pain sensitivity.

This study investigated stimulus-response patterns of temporal principal components analysis (PCA)-derived event-related potential (ERP) components in a classical auditory habituation paradigm with long interstimulus intervals. The skin conductance response (SCR) was included as the "gold standard" model of the Orienting Reflex. Thirty participants were presented with a single series of 10 identical 60 dB tones, followed by a change trial at a different frequency. Single-trial, electrooculography-corrected ERPs were submitted to temporal PCA. The main focus was on the components expected in the P300/Late Positive Complex (LPC), and their electromagnetic tomography-derived cortical sources. Nine components were identified between 90 and 470 ms poststimulus (in temporal order): three N1 subcomponents, P2, four LPC components, and a negative Slow Wave (SW). The expected order of P3a, P3b, Novelty P3 (nP3), and positive Slow Wave (+SW) in the LPC was confirmed. SCR demonstrated strong exponential decay and recovery. P3b and nP3 each showed exponential decrement over trials, but only nP3 showed recovery at the change trial. Novelty effects failed to reach significance for the other LPC components, and were not apparent in non-LPC components. Frontal lobe activity in Brodmann areas 6, 8, and 9 was common to P3a, P3b, nP3, and +SW, consistent with the functional integration of these components in the LPC. Individual components had specific sources, although some sources overlapped between components or were reactivated later in the LPC. These data provide a fresh perspective on the components of the LPC and their cortical sources, and offer a processing model for the P300 in a habituation task, potentially generalizable to other paradigms.

Brain dynamics research has highlighted the significance of the ongoing EEG in ERP genesis and cognitive functioning. Few studies, however, have assessed the contributions of the intrinsic resting state EEG to these stimulus-response processes and behavioral outcomes. Principal components analysis (PCA) has increasingly been used to obtain more objective, data-driven estimates of the EEG and ERPs. PCA was used here to reassess resting state EEG and go/no-go task ERP data from a previous study (Karamacoska et al., 2017) and the relationships between these measures. Twenty adults had EEG recorded with eyes closed (EC) and eyes open (EO), and as they completed an auditory go/no-go task. Separate EEG and ERP PCAs were conducted on each resting condition and stimulus type. For each state, seven EEG components were identified within the delta-beta frequency range, and six ERP components were obtained for go and no-go stimuli. Within the task, mean reaction time (RT) correlated positively with go P2 amplitude and negatively with P3b positivity. Regressions revealed that greater EC delta-1 amplitude predicted shorter mean RT, and larger alpha-3 amplitude predicted go P3b enhancement. These findings demonstrate the immediate P2 and P3b involvement in decision making and response control and the intrinsic EC delta-1 and alpha-3 amplitudes that underpin these processes.

This study compared the ERP components and behavior associated with the auditory equiprobable and classic oddball tasks, to relate the cognitive processing stages in those paradigms and continue the development of the sequential processing schema. Target and nontarget ERP data were acquired from 66 healthy young adults (Mage = 20.1, SD = 2.4 years, 14 male) who completed both equiprobable (target p = 0.5) and oddball tasks (target p = 0.3). Separate temporal PCAs were used to decompose the ERP data in each task and condition, and the similarity of the components identified in each condition was examined between tasks. Probability effects on component amplitudes and behavior were also analyzed to identify task differences in cognitive demands. A highly similar series of components was identified in each task, closely matching the schema: targets elicited N1‐3, N1‐1, PN, N2c, P3b, SW1, SW2; whereas nontargets elicited N1‐3, N1‐1, PN, N2b, P3a, SW1, SW2. N1‐1 and PN amplitudes increased as stimulus probability decreased, irrespective of the condition. N2b, P3b, SW1, and SW2 amplitudes also varied between tasks, illustrating task‐specific demands on those processing stages. These findings complemented the behavioral outcomes, which demonstrated greater accuracy and control in the classic oddball task. Overall, this study demonstrated comparable processing in the auditory equiprobable and classic oddball tasks, extending the generalizability of the schema and enabling further integration of the ERP theory associated with these tasks. This study also clarifies stimulus probability effects on the schema, providing important insight into the functionality of common ERP components.