MULTICENTER N400 ERP CONSISTENCY USING A PRIMED AND UNPRIMED WORD PARADIGM

A word priming paradigm involving primed, unprimed; and non-word exper imental conditions was used to elicit event-related potentials (ERPs) in normal, young adult males in identically equipped electrophysiology laboratories located in 6 different cities in the USA. Analyses of th e average amplitude of a specified latency window containing the N400, the N400 peak amplitude, or the latency of the N400 peak amplitude fo und no differences among laboratory locations. The shape of the N400 E RP wave form was also found to be highly correlated across laboratory sites for each experimental condition. Comparison of the data with ana logous word priming paradigms revealed similar patterns for the N400 c omponents and response times in both the primed and unprimed experimen tal conditions. These findings suggest that the data from all 6 labora tory locations are consistent with each other and are congruous with t hose found in other N400 studies and will permit pooling of subject da ta for future research.