Liang Tengfei, Hu Zhonghua, Li Yuchen, Ye Chaoxiong, Liu Qiang
Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China.
Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
Front Neurosci. 2017 Sep 26;11:527. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00527. eCollection 2017.
Detecting the changed information between memory representation and incoming sensory inputs is a fundamental cognitive ability. By offering the promise of excellent temporal resolution, event-related potential (ERP) technique has served as a primary tool for studying this process with reference of the linked mastoid (LM). However, given that LM may distort the ERP signals, it is still undetermined whether LM is the best reference choice. The goal of the current study was to systematically compare LM, reference electrode standardization technique (REST) and average reference (AR) for assessing the ERP correlates of change detection during a delayed matching task. Colored shapes were adopted as materials while both the task-relevant shape feature and -irrelevant color feature could be changed. The results of the ERP amplitude showed that both of the task-relevant and -conjunction feature changes elicited significantly more positive posterior P2 in REST and AR, but not in LM. Besides, significantly increased N270 was observed in task-relevant and -conjunction feature changes in both the REST and LM, but in the conjunction feature change in AR. Only the REST-obtained N270 revealed a significant increment in task-irrelevant feature change, which was compatible with the delayed behavioral performance. Statistical parametric scalp mapping (SPSM) results showed a left posterior distribution for AR, an anterior distribution for LM, and both the anterior and left posterior distributions for REST. These results indicate that different types of references may provide distinct cognitive interpretations. Interestingly, only the SPSM of REST was consistent with previous fMRI findings. Combined with the evidence of simulation studies and the current observations, we take the REST-based results as the objective one, and recommend using REST technology in the future ERP data analysis.
检测记忆表征与传入感觉输入之间的变化信息是一种基本的认知能力。事件相关电位（ERP）技术具有出色的时间分辨率，因此一直是通过连接乳突（LM）来研究这一过程的主要工具。然而，鉴于LM可能会扭曲ERP信号，LM是否是最佳参考选择仍未确定。本研究的目的是系统比较LM、参考电极标准化技术（REST）和平均参考（AR），以评估延迟匹配任务中变化检测的ERP相关性。采用彩色形状作为材料，任务相关的形状特征和无关的颜色特征均可改变。ERP振幅结果显示，任务相关特征和联合特征的变化在REST和AR中均引发了显著更正向的后部P2，但在LM中没有。此外，在REST和LM的任务相关特征和联合特征变化中均观察到N270显著增加，但在AR的联合特征变化中没有。只有REST获得的N270在任务无关特征变化中显示出显著增加，这与延迟的行为表现一致。统计参数头皮映射（SPSM）结果显示，AR为左后部分布，LM为前部分布，REST为前部和左后部分布。这些结果表明，不同类型的参考可能提供不同的认知解释。有趣的是，只有REST的SPSM与先前的功能磁共振成像结果一致。结合模拟研究的证据和当前的观察结果，我们将基于REST的结果视为客观结果，并建议在未来的ERP数据分析中使用REST技术。
