The effects of age on late components of the ERP and reaction time

The effects of age on late component (N100, P200, N200, and P300) event-rel ated potentials (ERP) and reaction time (RT) were investigated in 50 normal subjects, 18 to 70 years of age. A conventional auditory oddball paradigm was employed. An equal number of subjects, as well as an equal number of ma les and females, were examined in each decade. There were no significant as sociations found between ERP amplitude and age. A significant positive corr elation was found between age and N200/P300 latency. There were no signific ant effects of age on RT in the overall group. However, females had slower RT and decreased P200 and N200 amplitude as compared with males. Moreover, males had significant correlations between N200 latency and RT, whereas fem ales showed significant correlations between P300 amplitude and RT. ERP/RT effects should be further explicated between gender, as well as across age.