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Similarities and Differences Among the P3 Waves to Detected Signals in Three Modalities
Author(s) -
Snyder Elaine,
Hillyard Steven A.,
Galambos Robert
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1980.tb00120.x
Subject(s) - modalities , scalp , somatosensory system , psychology , modality (human–computer interaction) , stimulus modality , electroencephalography , audiology , signal (programming language) , stimulus (psychology) , neuroscience , communication , cognitive psychology , perception , computer science , artificial intelligence , medicine , social science , sociology , anatomy , programming language
Event‐related brain potentials were recorded from the scalp while subjects detected visual, auditory, and somatosensory stimuli presented near threshold. The waveforms were characterized by large, late‐positive (P3) waves to signal detections in all three modalities. The scalp distributions of these P3s revealed no substantial differences among the three modalities. There were, however, reliable latency and amplitude differences, with the P3 to visual signals occurring later than to somatic (Study 1) or to auditory (Study 2) signals. Further, the P3s to detected visual signals were substantially larger than those to auditory or somatosensory signals. Taken together, the data suggest that P3 waves to all modalities arise from a common neural generating system but that visual signals access this system in a different fashion from the other modalities.