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The classic P300 encodes a build‐to‐threshold decision variable
Open accessAbstract
The P300 component of the human event‐related potential has been the subject of intensive experimental investigation across a five‐decade period, owing to its apparent relevance to a wide range of cognitive functions and its sensitivity to numerous brain disorders, yet its exact contribution to cognition remains unresolved. Here, we carry out key analyses of the P300 elicited by transient auditory and visual targets to examine its potential role as a ‘decision variable’ signal that accumulates evidence to a decision bound. Consistent with the latter, we find that the P300 reaches a stereotyped amplitude immediately prior to response execution and that its rate of rise scales with target detection difficulty and accounts for trial‐to‐trial variance in RT . Computational simulations of an accumulation‐to‐bound decision process faithfully captured P300 dynamics when its parameters were set by model fits to the RT distributions. Thus, where the dominant explanatory accounts have conceived of the P300 as a unitary neural event, our data reveal it to be a dynamically evolving neural signature of decision formation. These findings place the P300 at the heart of a mechanistically principled framework for understanding decision‐making in both the typical and atypical human brain.
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“This suggests that the P3 may encode motivationally significant events, which, in the present study, were the saliently colored/ethnic Black hands during SRC processing, potentially contributing to a dynamic decision process of linking perception to action31,42–45”
From Event-related potentials of automatic imitation are modulated by ethnicity during stimulus processing, but not during motor execution (2018) · cites this paper as [42]
In the citing paper
“It has been suggested that the role of the P3 component lies in bridging stimulus perception and response execution31,44 in a dynamically evolving decision process, linking sensory encoding of stimulus perception to the preparation of action42,43,45, and/or response control44.”
From Event-related potentials of automatic imitation are modulated by ethnicity during stimulus processing, but not during motor execution (2018) · cites this paper as [42]
In the citing paper
“This has been argued to be in line with the P3 component acting as an intermediate link on the dynamic formation of decision from stimulus encoding to motor preparation42.”
From Event-related potentials of automatic imitation are modulated by ethnicity during stimulus processing, but not during motor execution (2018) · cites this paper as [42]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Twomey, D. M., Murphy, P. R., Kelly, S. P., & O'Connell, R. G.
- Affiliations
- Trinity College Dublin (IE)
- Leiden University (NL)
- City College of New York (US)
- Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Lloyd Building Trinity College Dublin Dublin 2 Ireland
- ORCID
- Kelly, Simon P.
- Venue
- European Journal of Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2015-05-28
- Volume
- 42
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1636-1643
- ISSN
- 0953-816X (ISSN-L)
- 1460-9568
- OpenAlex
- W1978718038
- Cited by
- 376
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 38 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 35 · 2023: 40 · 2022: 34 · 2021: 34 · 2020: 40 · 2019: 36 · 2018: 33 · 2017: 27 · 2016: 33 · 2015: 4
- FWCI
- 19.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- zenodo.org
- Licence
- Locations
- European Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Leiden Repository (Leiden University) (submittedVersion)
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (BCS- 1358955)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › EEG and Brain-Computer Interfaces
- Keywords
- P300, event-related potentials, decision variables, evidence accumulation, decision-making, response execution, reaction time variability, computational modeling
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Auditory Perception, Brain, Computer Simulation, Decision Making, Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Evoked Potentials, Visual, Female, Humans, Male, Models, Neurological, Reaction Time, Visual Perception, Event-Related Potentials, P300, Young Adult
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