Long-term reliability of electrophysiologic response control parameters.
The execution (Go) and the inhibition (NoGo) of a motor response are basic cognitive processes that can be assessed by means of a simple neuropsychological Go-NoGo task: the Continuous Performance Test (CPT). Simultaneous electrophysiologic investigations revealed that the NoGo condition of the CPT is associated with a clearly more anterior brain electrical activity compared with the Go condition. Recently, it has been shown that this NoGo anteriorization effect during a response control paradigm can be measured quantitatively with the electrophysiologic centroid method. The objective of the current study, therefore, was to determine the long-term reliability of the topographic measures of cognitive response control (i.e., location of the Go and the NoGo centroid and the NoGo anteriorization). For this purpose, a 21-channel EEG was recorded twice from 13 healthy volunteers during their execution of a cued CPT (O-X version). The time interval between test and retest was 2.74 years (range, 2.41 to 2.97 years). Statistical analysis of the event-related Go and NoGo potentials revealed an excellent test-retest reliability, as expressed by Pearson's product moment correlation coefficients of more than 0.85 (P < or = 0.0005) and intraclass correlation coefficients of more than 0.90 (P </= 0.0005) for all three topographic measures. These results indicate that these electrophysiologic parameters present with superior long-term reliability and that they may be applied as electrophysiologic trait markers of response control mechanisms in the human brain.
Fallgatter
A J
AJ
Psychiatric Neurophysiology, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Wuerzburg, Fuechsleinstrasse 15, 97080 Wuerzburg, Germany.
Aranda
D R
DR
Bartsch
A J
AJ
Herrmann
M J
MJ
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results