Dx. Rasmusson et Jd. Allen, INTERTARGET INTERVAL DOES NOT AFFECT P300 WITHIN ODDBALL SERIES, International journal of psychophysiology, 17(1), 1994, pp. 57-63
Increasing interstimulus interval or decreasing target probability of
an oddball series increases P300 amplitude. These findings serve as on
e of the key underpinnings for the context updating hypothesis of P300
. This hypothesis argues that by increasing the average amount of time
elapsing between targets, decay of the neural model occurs and there
is greater need for updating the model's accuracy. The amount of updat
ing is reflected by increased P300 amplitude. To date, most comparison
s have been made between P300 elicited by targets in different oddball
series which vary in their mean intertarget interval. The current stu
dy examined P300 responses to within-series targets grouped according
to how much time had elapsed since the previous target. No differences
were found between P300 responses elicited by targets occurring 5-20
s since the previous target. This indicates that P300 amplitude does n
ot vary with the amount of time passing between targets. Therefore, th
e context updating hypothesis may require some revision.