Reaction-time variability, periodicities in reaction-time distributions, and the EEG gating-signal hypothesis

Abstract

Variability in a person's reaction time (RT) was investigated in relation to a model which hypothesized that the speed of information processing is a function of two factors, namely, the time characteristics of a cortical gating signal, and the recovery period of the events activated by the gating signals. A total of 280 RTs were obtained from each of six young adult subjects while electroencephalograms (EEGs) were simultaneously recorded. Half of the trials were performed under conditions which yielded short, low variability RTs while the other 140 trials were obtained under conditions which produced longer, highly variable RTs. Distributions of RTs from the two conditions were examined in relation to distributions of EEG half waves - which were assumed to define the period of the cortical gating signal - taken from the interval between stimulus and response. Findings were consistent with the model under investigation, namely: (1) the two different conditions produced periodicities or multiple peaks in the RT distributions; (2) the magnitude of the time intervals between consecutive peaks in the subjects' RT distributions was correlated with the duration of the most frequently occurring half waves in their EEGs; and (3) inter-subject differences in variability of the RT distributions were associated with differences in variability of the EEG distributions.