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Cortical Augmenting‐Reducing — Modality Specific?
Author(s) -
Raine Adrian,
Mitchell David A.,
Venables Peter H.
Publication year - 1981
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.1469-8986.1981.tb01847.x
Subject(s) - psychology , stimulus (psychology) , sensory system , stimulus modality , neuroscience , audiology , cognitive psychology , medicine
The assumption that cortical augmenting‐reducing is independent of stimulus modality was tested by presenting both auditory and visual stimuli to 42 subjects. Cross‐modal correlations for P1N1 and N1P2 slope measures were negligible and nonsignificant. They remained insignificant using a measure independent of overall responsivity, after exclusion of “inconsistent” slope values, after equating for relative stimulus intensity, and after data transformations. No evidence was found for overall reducing in the auditory modality, although “paradoxical” reducing was observed over low intensity levels. Slopes derived from this reducing range did not correlate with visual slopes. Visual reducing was not found to be an artifact of selective EP latency jitter or scatter of the data points, but was found to correlate with confidence ratings of peak‐trough identification. These results suggest that cortical reducing is modality‐specific and is not mediated by a generalized, central inhibitory mechanism but by independent, sensory‐specific pathways. Implications were drawn for both the neuroanatomical basis of cortical augmenting‐reducing and its application in psychopathology.