Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jul;57(7):e13371.
doi: 10.1111/psyp.13371. Epub 2019 Mar 28.

Components in the P300: Don't forget the Novelty P3!

Affiliations

Components in the P300: Don't forget the Novelty P3!

Robert J Barry et al. Psychophysiology. 2020 Jul.

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Habituation; Late Positive Complex (LPC); Novelty P3 (nP3); Orienting Reflex (OR); P300; P3a; P3b; Skin Conductance Response (SCR); Slow Wave (SW); temporal PCA.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Barry, R. J. (1975). Low-intensity auditory stimulation and the GSR orienting response. Physiological Psychology, 3, 98-100. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03326832
    1. Barry, R. J. (1990). Scoring criteria for response latency and habituation in electrodermal research: A study in the context of the orienting response. Psychophysiology, 27, 94-100. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.1990.tb02185.x
    1. Barry, R. J. (2004). Stimulus significance effects in habituation of the phasic and tonic orienting reflex. Integrative Physiological & Behavioral Science, 39, 166-179. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02734437
    1. Barry, R. J. (2006). Promise versus reality in relation to the unitary orienting reflex: A case study examining the role of theory in psychophysiology. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 62, 353-366. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2006.01.004
    1. Barry, R. J. (2009). Habituation of the orienting reflex and the development of Preliminary Process Theory. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 92, 235-242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nlm.2008.07.007