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The Effects of Age on Human Event‐Related Potentials
Author(s) -
Picton Terence W.,
Stuss Donald T.,
Champagne Sandra C.,
Nelson Robert F.
Publication year - 1984
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.1469-8986.1984.tb02941.x
Subject(s) - audiology , psychology , stimulus (psychology) , event related potential , somatosensory system , latency (audio) , auditory event , evoked potential , developmental psychology , neuroscience , electroencephalography , cognition , cognitive psychology , medicine , electrical engineering , engineering
Event‐related brain potentials were recorded from 72 normal subjects aged 20‐79 yrs. The event‐related potential to a detected improbable signal contained a large late positive component or P3 wave. The latency of the P3 wave in the response to an auditory signal increased regularly with increasing age at a rate of 1.36 ms per year, and its amplitude decreased at a rate of 0.18 μV per year. Similar age‐related changes in the P3 wave occurred in the visual and somatosensory modalities. The change in the latency of the P3 wave occurred independently of any change in the reaction time, which showed no significant age‐related change. The latency of the P3 wave associated with the detection of an omitted auditory stimulus did not change significantly with age.