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Changes in the somatosensory N250 and P300 by the variation of reaction time

European Journal of Applied Physiology volume 89, pages 326–330 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

We investigated the relationship between somatosensory event-related potentials (ERP) and the variation of reaction time (RT). For this purpose, we recorded the ERPs (N250 and P300) in fast- and slow-reaction trials during a somatosensory discrimination task. Strong, standard, and weak target electrical stimuli were randomly delivered to the left median nerve at the wrist with a random interstimulus interval (900–1,100 ms). All the subjects were instructed to respond by pressing a button with their right thumb as fast as possible whenever a target stimulus was presented. We divided all the trials into fast- and slow-RT trials and averaged the data. N250 latency tended to be delayed when the RT was slow, but not significantly. P300 latency was delayed significantly when the RT was slow, but to a much lesser extent than the RT delay, so we concluded that the change of RT was not fully determined by the processes reflected by the somatosensory N250 or P300. Furthermore, the larger and earlier P300 in the fast-RT trials implied that when larger amounts of attentional resources were allocated to a given task, the speed of stimulus evaluation somewhat increased and RT was shortened to a great extent. N250 amplitude did not significantly vary in the two RT clusters. In conclusion, the somatosensory N250 reflects active target detection, which is relatively independent of the modulation of the response speed, whereas the somatosensory P300 could change without manipulation of either the stimulus or the response processing demand.

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Acknowledgement

This research was supported in part by the Nishihira/Tsukuba Project of COE (Center of Excellence) from the Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

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Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Physiology, Tsukuba University School of Physical Education, Tennoudai 1-1-1, Tsukuba-city, Japan

    Tetsuo Kida

  2. Institute of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tennoudai 1-1-1, Tsukuba-city, Japan

    Yoshiaki Nishihira & Arihiro Hatta

  3. Doctoral program in Health and Sport Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tennoudai 1-1-1, Tsukuba-city, Japan

    Toshiaki Wasaka & Hiroki Nakata

  4. Master's program in Health and Sport Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tennoudai 1-1-1, Tsukuba-city, Japan

    Masanori Sakamoto

  5. Division of Health and Sports Education, United of Graduate School of Education, Tokyo Gakugei University, Tokyo, Japan

    Tsuyoshi Nakajima

Authors
  1. Tetsuo Kida
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  2. Yoshiaki Nishihira
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  3. Arihiro Hatta
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  4. Toshiaki Wasaka
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  5. Hiroki Nakata
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  6. Masanori Sakamoto
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  7. Tsuyoshi Nakajima
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Correspondence to Tetsuo Kida.

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Tetsuo Kida is participating in the doctoral program in Health and Sport Sciences, University of Tsukuba

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Kida, T., Nishihira, Y., Hatta, A. et al. Changes in the somatosensory N250 and P300 by the variation of reaction time. Eur J Appl Physiol 89, 326–330 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-003-0801-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-003-0801-y

Keywords

  • Attention
  • N250
  • P300
  • Somatosensory
  • Reaction time