Effects of time and tasks upon auditory and somatosensory evoked potentials in man.

Auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) recorded from the vertex and somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) recorded from the somatosensory and motor areas and vertex were examined during visual and auditory discrimination tasks, with and without motor responses, and during motor tasks alone in normal human subjects. These procedures allowed the separation of sensory discrimination from motor activity effects on the evoked potentials. It was observed that EPs were modified systematically by task and by temporal variables, even though vigilance, as evaluated through EEG recording and performance level, was stable throughout the experimental recording session. 1. AEPs were minimally influenced by time, but very sensitive to task. Inversely, the SEP amplitude decreased considerably with time and less with task. There was evidence of time/task interaction. 2. The magnitude of SEP attenuation in time was reduced by intervening rest periods. 3. The sensory modality in which the discrimination task was performed did not influence the effect on EPs. A discrimination task involving a motor response reduced EPs more than a pure discrimination or a pure motor task. The task effect seems to involve a general, mechanism (load imposed upon the subject) not dependent on the particular sensory channel used to deliver task-relevant information.