CNV abnormalities following closed head injury.
Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in a GO/NO-GO reaction time task from 20 closed head injury patients, at least 6 months postinjury, and from 20 controls. In this task the pitch of an initial tone (Sl) indicated whether or not a response was required to a second tone (S2) occurring 1.5 s later. In the control group both the early, frontal-maximum, and the later vertex-maximum, components of the contingent negative variation (CNV) were larger on GO than NO-GO trials. In the patients, the early frontal CNV wave did not differentiate GO and NO-GO trials, and the late CNV showed a smaller separation between these trial types than did the late CNV of the control group. These CNV abnormalities may reflect impairments in selectively orienting to salient stimuli, and in differential response preparation. Such impairments might in turn reflect the damage to the frontal lobes and/or their connections that commonly occurs as a result of closed head injury.
Rugg
M D
MD
MRC Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group, University of St Andrews, Fife, UK.
Cowan
C P
CP
Nagy
M E
ME
Milner
A D
AD
Jacobson
I
I
Brooks
D N
DN
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003265:Contingent Negative Variation; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004585:Electrooculography; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology