Normative Variation of P3a and P3b from a Large Sample

Abstract

Abstract. The P3a and P3b components were elicited in 120 (60 females, 60 males) young adults using a visual three-stimulus event-related brain potential (ERP) oddball paradigm in which subjects responded to an infrequent target. The major purpose of the paper was to provide a statistically strong characterization of these related P300 subcomponents. P3a components were obtained from the infrequently presented distracter stimulus, which was a large blue square. P3b components were obtained from the target stimulus, which was a blue circle that differed slightly in diameter from the standard stimulus blue circle. Amplitude measures demonstrated that P3a was maximum at Cz, and P3b was maximum at Pz; latency measures increased for both potentials from frontal to parietal recording sites. P3a and P3b from females were larger and later than those from male subjects, with topographic and appreciable individual difference variability observed. P3a was generally unrelated to response time. P3b amplitude was negatively correlated over right frontal areas with P3b latency and positively correlated over right parietal areas to response time. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Sex differences in cognitive control are associated with midcingulate and callosal morphology

“…Similarly, correlations between P300 amplitudes and callosal morphology emphasize the relevance of interhemispheric interactions for this ERP. One has to stress that the sex-related differences reported here go well beyond those effects that have been reported earlier (e.g., Steffensen et al 2008;Conroy and Polich 2007;Yuan et al 2008), which usually indicate higher ERP amplitudes with female subjects. However, these kinds of sex differences can be explained in terms of variations in head size and geometry only, without necessarily denoting any essential functional relevance.…”

“…This N200 should indicate a higher degree of functional lateralization in males favoring the left hemisphere. Concerning the P300, earlier studies reported augmented amplitudes in females (e.g., Conroy and Polich 2007). It has been suggested that this effect, at least partly, may be driven by a higher degree of interhemispheric connectivity in women, an assumption potentially supported by the observation of larger relative callosal pathways in female brains (e.g., Jäncke et al 1997;Smith 2005).…”

“…Turning to electrophysiological studies (especially using event-related potentials, ERPs) and again looking at sex differences in Go/Nogo, Stop-Signal, or related tasks, there are only few studies that directly addressed this issue. For one, in a large normative sample, Conroy and Polich (2007) recorded ERPs while the subjects performed a variant of a visual oddball paradigm that elicits a so-called P3a (e.g., Polich 2007). The authors found prolonged reaction times to target stimuli in females, indicating differences in the processing of task-relevant stimuli.…”

Short- and long-lasting consequences of novelty, deviance and surprise on brain and cognition

“…With this reconceptualization of the novelty P3, the similarity between the novelty P3 and the P3a component becomes even more striking, as the P3a is elicited by non-novel stimuli that deviate from other stimuli in an experiment (e.g., a blue square amongst blue circles; Conroy and Polich, 2007). Interestingly, the P3a has been sourced to the same anterior cingulate and prefrontal cortex network that is also involved in error processing (Wessel et al, 2012(Wessel et al, , 2014, suggesting that deviance detection is in some ways similar to the detection of errors.…”

Primary somatosensory contextual modulation is encoded by oscillation frequency change

“…However, the predominant task was to respond to target sounds. The P3, which is a stable and reliably reproducible component, was chosen as the underlying cognitive context co-occurring with the somatosensory stimulation (Pineda et al, 1997;Conroy and Polich, 2007). According to (Ishii et al, 2009) frontocentral-parietal event related synchronisation (related to the P3) is functionally engaged in auditory attention and also in memory updating processes (Debener et al, 2002).…”