The effect of attentional effort on visual evoked potential N1 latency

The latency of the visual evoked potential N1 component evoked by nontarget stimuli increases with an increased attention to nontarget stimuli. The latency increase seems related to a general effort at processing, rather than any early filtering. This phenomenon is illustrated in one study of hyperactive children and another of normal young adults. The literature of this phenomenon is reviewed, and various explanations are considered. It does not appear to be a result of a slow negative wave, but rather a genuine effect of one aspect of attention on N1.

[1]  Linda R. Warren,et al.  Evoked potential correlates of recognition memory , 1980, Biological Psychology.

[2]  R. Näätänen,et al.  Early selective-attention effects on the evoked potential: A critical review and reinterpretation , 1979, Biological Psychology.

[3]  E. Callaway,et al.  Averaged evoked potential predictors of clinical improvement in hyperactive children treated with methylphenidate: an initial study and replication. , 1976, Psychophysiology.

[4]  J. Ford,et al.  Parameters of temporal recovery of the human auditory evoked potential. , 1976, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[5]  S. Hillyard,et al.  Selective attention and the auditory vertex potential. Effects of signal intensity and masking noise. , 1976, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[6]  Tsunetaka Okita,et al.  Event-related potentials and selective attention to auditory stimuli varying in pitch and localization , 1979, Biological Psychology.

[7]  D Kleinman,et al.  N1-P2 correlates of reaction time at the single-trial level. , 1980, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[8]  C. Shagass,et al.  Somatosensory evoked potential changes with a selective attention task. , 1982, Psychophysiology.

[9]  M. Buchsbaum,et al.  Influences of Respiratory Cycle on Simple Reaction Time , 1965, Perceptual and motor skills.

[10]  Raja Parasuraman,et al.  Effects of information processing demands on slow negative shift latencies and N100 amplitude in selective and divided attention , 1980, Biological Psychology.

[11]  C. Conners,et al.  A teacher rating scale for use in drug studies with children. , 1969, The American journal of psychiatry.

[12]  S A Hillyard,et al.  Event-related potentials (ERPs) to interruptions of a steady rhythm. , 1981, Psychophysiology.

[13]  M Feinsod,et al.  Somatosensory evoked responses: latency differences in blind and sighted persons. , 1973, Brain research.

[14]  S A Hillyard,et al.  Auditory evoked potentials during multichannel selective listening: role of pitch and localization cues. , 1976, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[15]  E. Callaway,et al.  INTERACTION BETWEEN THE VISUAL EVOKED RESPONSE AND TWO SPONTANEOUS BIOLOGICAL RHYTHMS: THE EEG ALPHA CYCLE AND THE CARDIAC AROUSAL CYCLE * , 1964, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[16]  D B Lindsley,et al.  Cortical slow negative waves following non-paired stimuli: effects of modality, intensity and rate of stimulation. , 1979, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[17]  W. Surwillo.  Cortical evoked response recovery functions: Physiological manifestations of the psychological refractory period? , 1977, Psychophysiology.

[18]  N. Adam,et al.  Late components of the visual evoked potential to search in short-term memory. , 1978, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.