An investigation of the event-related slow-wave potential (0.01-2 HZ) in normal children.
Previous research has indicated that the auditory ERPs of children are dominated by a frontal negative slow-wave. This paper outlines a preliminary attempt to separate event-related low-frequency activity from traditional ERP components as found in older subjects. An active auditory oddball task was completed by 30 normal children aged from 8 to 18 years, and ERPs to target and standard stimuli were derived. The original ERP files were digitally filtered to calculate separate ERPs containing only 0.01-2 Hz activity (termed the SW-ERP) or 2-12 Hz activity (termed the RESIDUAL ERP) for each subject. The SW-ERP was maximally correlated with the slow-wave factor from a principal components analysis of the original target and standard waveforms. The SW-ERPs to target stimuli contained an early negative component which showed an age-related decrease, and a late positive component which did not. The SW-ERP was found to be partly responsible for the differences in component amplitude and morphology between sites observed in the raw ERPs.
Johnstone
S J
SJ
Department of Psychology, University of Wollongong, Australia. sjohnsto@uow.edu.au
Barry
R J
RJ
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D003700:Delta Rhythm; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012016:Reference Values