Summary
In six human subjects negative slow potentials associated with voluntary movements and discrimination tasks were studied. On the basis of their spatial distribution on the scalp the slow potentials could be divided into three groups:
-
1.
Acentral-dominant potential (‘readiness potential’) which is suggested to be a sign of general readiness to perform a task.
-
2.
Afrontal-dominant potential which seems to be related to the uncertainty of the subject.
-
3.
Acentro-frontal potential (‘contingent negative variation’) which probably results from a summation of the electric fields of the central-dominant and the frontal-dominant potential.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Borda, R.P.: Drive and performance related aspects of the CNV in Rhesus monkeys. Electroenceph. clin. Neurophysiol.27, 704 (1969).
Brazier, M.A.B.: Evoked responses recorded from the depths of the human brain. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci.112, 33–59 (1964).
Cant, B.R., Pearson, J.E., Bickford, R.G.: The mechanism of the expectancy wave in man. Electroenceph. clin. Neurophysiol.21, 622 (1966).
Costa, L.D., Vaughan, H.G., Gilden, L.: Comparison of electromyographic and microswitch measures of auditory reaction time. Percept. mot. Skills20, 771–772 (1965).
Creutzfeldt, O.D., Kuhnt, U.: The visual evoked potential: physiological, developmental and clinical aspects. Electroenceph. clin. Neurophysiol. Suppl.26, 29–41 (1967).
Deecke, L., Scheid, P., Kornhuber, H.H.: Distribution of readiness potential, pre-motion positivity, and motor potential of the human cerebral cortex preceding voluntary finger movements. Exp. Brain Res.7, 158–168 (1969).
Dixon, W.J., Massey, F.J.: Introduction to statistical analysis. New York: McGraw-Hill 1957.
Donchin, E., Smith, D.D. B.: The CNV and the “late positive wave” — two sides of the same coin. Electroenceph. clin. Neurophysiol.28, 91 (1970).
Fruhstorfer, H., Soveri, P., Järvilehto, T.: Short-term habituation of the auditory evoked response in man. Electroenceph. clin. Neurophysiol.28, 153–161 (1970).
Gilden, L., Vaughan, H.G., Costa, L.D.: Summated human EEG potentials with voluntary movement. Electroenceph. clin. Neurophysiol.20, 433–438 (1966).
Hillyard, S.A.: Relationships between the contingent negative variation (CNV) and reaction time. Physiol. Behav.4, 351–357 (1969).
—, Galambos, R.: Effects of stimulus and response contingencies on surface negative slow potential shift in man. Electroenceph. clin. Neurophysiol.22, 297–304 (1967).
— —: Eye movement artifact in the CNV. Electroenceph. clin. Neurophysiol.28, 173–182 (1970).
Irwin, D.A., Knott, J.R., McAdam, D.W., Rebert, C.S.: Motivational determinants of the “contingent negative variation”. Electroenceph. clin. Neurophysiol.21, 538–543 (1966).
Järvilehto, T., Fruhstorfer, H.: Characteristics of slow cortical potentials associated with motor and mental acts in man. Acta physiol. scand. Suppl.330, 116 (1969).
Kornhuber, H.H., Deecke, L.: Hirnpotentialänderungen bei Willkürbewegungen und passiven Bewegungen des Menschen: Bereitschaftspotential und reafferente Potentiale. Pflügers Arch. ges. Physiol.284, 1–17 (1965).
Low, M.D., Borda, R.P., Frost, J.D., Kellaway, P.: Surface-negative, slow-potential shift associated with conditioning in man. Neurology (Minneap.)16, 771–782 (1966).
—, Coats, A.C., Rettig, G.M., McSherry, J.W.: Anxiety, attentiveness-alertness: a phenomenological study of the CNV. Neuropsychologia (Oxford)5, 379–384 (1967).
—, McSherry, J.W.: Further observations of psychological factors involved in CNV genesis. Electroenceph. clin. Neurophysiol.25, 203–207 (1968).
McAdam, D.W., Seales, D.M.: Bereitschaftspotential enhancement with increased level of motivation. Electroenceph. clin. Neurophysiol.27, 73–75 (1969).
McCallum, W.C., Walter, W.G.: The effects of attention and distraction on the contingent negative variation in normal and neurotic subjects. Electroenceph. clin. Neurophysiol.25, 319–329 (1968).
Rebert, C.S., McAdam, D.W., Knott, J.R., Irwin, D.A.: Slow potential change in human brain related to level of motivation. J. comp. physiol. Psychol.63, 20–23 (1967).
Sutton, S., Tueting, P., Zubin, J., John, E.R.: Information delivery and the sensory evoked potential. Science155, 1436–1439 (1967).
Tecce, J.J., Scheff, N.M.: Attention reduction and suppressed direct-current potentials in the human brain. Science164, 331–333 (1969).
Vaughan, H.G., Costa, L.D.: Analysis of electroencephalographic correlates of human sensorimotor processes. Electroenceph. clin. Neurophysiol.24, 288 (1968).
— —, Ritter, W.: Topography of the human motor potential. Electroenceph. clin. Neurophysiol.25, 1–10 (1968).
Walter, W.G.: Slow potential waves in the human brain associated with expectancy, attention and decision. Arch. Psychiat. Nervenkr.208, 309–322 (1964).
—, Cooper, R., Aldridge, V.J., McCallum, W.C., Winter, A.L.: Contingent negative variation: an electric sign of sensori-motor association and expectancy in the human brain. Nature (Lond.)203, 380–384 (1964).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
A preliminary report of this work was presented at the XIII Scandinavian Congress of Physiology, Göteborg 1969 (Järvilehto and Fruhstorfer, 1969).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Järvilehto, T., Fruhstorfer, H. Differentiation between slow cortical potentials associated with motor and mental acts in man. Exp Brain Res 11, 309–317 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01474389
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01474389