Stimulus novelty, task relevance and the visual evoked potential in man
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Visual evoked potentials (VEPs) were recorded from normal adult subjects performing in a visual discrimination task. Subjects counted the number of presentations of the numeral 4 which was interposed rarely and randomly within a sequence of tachistoscopically flashed background stimuli (numeral 2s). Intrusive, task-irrelevant (not counted) stimuli were also interspersed rarely and randomly in the sequence of 2s; these stimuli were of two types: simples, which were easily recognizable (e.g., geometric figures), and novels, which were completely unrecognizable (i.e., complex, colorful patterns). It was found that the simples and the counted 4s evoked posteriorly distributed P3 waves (latency 380-430 msec) while the irrelevant novels evoked large, frontally distributed P3 waves (latency 360-380 msec). These large, frontal P3 waves to novels were also found to be preceded by large N2 waves (latency 278 msec). These findings indicate that "the P3" wave is not a unitary phenomenon but should be considered in terms of a family of waves, differing in their brain generators and in their psychological correlates. These late positive components are discussed in terms of task-relevance, recognition and Pavlov's "what is it" response.
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Neural signals marking gross violations of expectations have long been reported using EEG and fMRI.
“One indication that the brain may compute SPEs is that neural signals marking gross violations of expectations have long been reported, particularly using both EEG (Courchesne et al., 1975; Fabiani and Friedman, 1995) or in combination with fMRI (Opitz et al., 1999; Strobel et al., 2008).”
From States versus Rewards: Dissociable Neural Prediction Error Signals Underlying Model-Based and Model-Free Reinforcement Learning (2010) · cites this paper as Courchesne et al., 1975
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- Authors
- Courchesne, E., Hillyard, S. A., & Galambos, R.
- Affiliations
- University of California San Diego (US)
- Venue
- Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1975-08
- Volume
- 39
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 131-143
- ISSN
- 0013-4694 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2021462108
- Cited by
- 1,012
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 26 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 22 · 2014: 34 · 2013: 26 · 2012: 30
- FWCI
- 11.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- NASA STI Repository (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › EEG and Brain-Computer Interfaces
- Keywords
- visual evoked potentials, P3 wave, stimulus novelty, task relevance, visual discrimination, stimulus recognition, visual discrimination task
- MeSH terms
- Attention, Discrimination, Psychological, Electrodes, Electroencephalography, Electrooculography, Evoked Potentials, Humans, Physical Stimulation, Reaction Time, Task Performance and Analysis, Vision, Ocular
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