ERP components in picture matching in children and adults.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 22 young children (aged 6–8) and 25 adults (aged 20–38) in a modification, using pictorial stimuli, of Posner's (1978) letter-matching paradigm. Subjects were required to decide whether two line drawings, presented sequentially, were the same or different on the basis of whether they were physically identical, shared the same name, or were in the same category. Subjects always made a choice “same’ or “different” delayed response whose meaning depended on the operative instruction condition in that block of trials. The ERPs elicited by S1 and S2 with this paradigm from both age groups were of complex morphology, with P300 to both S1 and S2, the E-wave preceding S2, and N400 possibly homologous for children and adults. P300, N400, and E-wave probably had similar functional roles for children and adults as attested by the lack of significant interactions between age groups and the cognitive variables manipulated in the experiment. However, group differences in scalp distribution for one of these components suggest that although they may be generically similar across groups, they are probably not identical with respect to brain generators. In addition, there were group differences in timing of P300 in the two age groups. Overall, the ERP findings suggest that the cognitive processing of children and adults in the same task is different, although the behavioral data lend only partial support for these conclusions.

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