Does the Temporal P2 Wave in Event-Related Potentials Reflect the Process of Comparing Visual Information with a Working Memory Trace?
摘要
The aim of this work was to reveal the features of informationprocessing in the brain at the early stages of perception in thecontext of solving a match–mismatch task for visual stimuli. Forthis purpose, visual stimuli—images (I) and their correspondingprinted words (W)—were presented in the test as comparison pairs,each consisting of two sequentially presented stimuli. The participanthad to compare these two stimuli with each other and give a motorresponse. In 50% of cases, the stimuli in the pair matched eachother, while in 50% they mismatched. The results of tree tests—II,IW, WI—were analyzed. EEG was recorded in 31 leads in 84 healthyadult subjects during the tests. The results of event-related potential(ERP) analysis are reported here. It was shown that a new imagepresented in the comparison pair II caused an increase in the ERPP2 component, generated in posterior temporal leads P7 andP8, while stimulus repetition caused a decreasein P2 amplitude compared to the first image stimulus presentationin all tests. It is hypothesized that the observed increase in P2reflects the processes occurring in neural networks when detectinga mismatch between the presented image and the object image storedin working memory.