Cicero Learning, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Behav Brain Funct. 2022 Dec 1;18(1):13. doi: 10.1186/s12993-022-00202-7.
The P3a response is thought to reflect involuntary orienting to an unexpected stimulus and has been connected with set-shifting and inhibition in some studies. In our exploratory study, we investigated if the amplitude and the latency of the P3a response were associated with the performance in a modified flanker task measuring inhibition and set-shifting in 10-year-old children (N = 42). Children participated in electroencephalography (EEG) measurement with an auditory multifeature paradigm including standard, deviating, and novel sounds. In addition, they performed a separate flanker task requiring inhibition and set-shifting skills.
The P3a latencies for deviant sounds were associated with the reaction time reflecting inhibition: the shorter the response latencies were, the faster the reaction time was. The P3a latencies for novel sounds were not linked to the reaction times reflecting either inhibition or set-shifting. In addition, the magnitude of the P3a response was not associated with the performance in the flanker task.
Our results suggest that P3a response latency and reaction speed reflecting inhibitory skills are based on shared neural mechanism. Thus, the present study brings new insight to the field investigating the associations between behavior and its neural indices.
人们认为 P3a 反应反映了对意外刺激的无意识定向，并且在一些研究中与转换和抑制有关。在我们的探索性研究中，我们调查了在一项测量 10 岁儿童抑制和转换能力的改良侧抑制任务中，P3a 反应的幅度和潜伏期是否与表现相关（N=42）。孩子们参与了包括标准、偏差和新颖声音的听觉多特征范式的脑电图（EEG）测量。此外，他们还进行了一项单独的侧抑制任务，需要抑制和转换技能。
偏差声音的 P3a 潜伏期与反映抑制的反应时间有关：反应时间越短，反应时间越快。新颖声音的 P3a 潜伏期与反映抑制或转换的反应时间无关。此外，P3a 反应的幅度与侧抑制任务的表现无关。
我们的结果表明，反映抑制技能的 P3a 反应潜伏期和反应速度基于共享的神经机制。因此，本研究为研究行为及其神经指标之间的关联提供了新的见解。
