Subclasses of event‐related potentials: Response‐locked and stimulus‐locked components

The manner in which information processing proceeds and the relationship of the components of the cerebral “event‐related” evoked potential (ERP) to the presumed stages of such processing are uncertain. We studied these relationships by recording long‐latency evoked potentials from the scalp in conjunction with electromyographic (EMG) recording in experiments in which subjects were required to make a motor response to one of two auditory stimuli. The cerebral response was averaged from the tone onset (stimulus‐synchronized average) and the EMG onset (response‐synchronized average). We found that N2 was quite distinct from the other ERP components (P165 and P3) in its lack of a close relationship to the motor response required in a sensory discrimination task. This suggests that, contrary to general belief, the P165‐N2‐P3 components of the ERP are not generated in an orderly sequence, but rather are generated separately and are possibly related to different cognitive processes.

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