Stimulus modality, perceptual overlap, and the go/no-go N2.
Stimuli that elicit a prepotent but incorrect response are typically associated with an enhanced electrophysiological N2 that is thought to index the operation of a control process such as inhibition or conflict detection. However, recent studies reporting the absence of the N2 modulation in go/no-go tasks involving auditory stimuli challenge this view: It is not clear why inhibition or conflict detection should be sensitive to the modality of the stimulus. Here we present electrophysiological data from a go/no-go task suggesting that the relative size of the N2 modulation in visual and auditory tasks depends on the perceptual overlap between the go and no-go stimuli. Stimuli that looked similar but sounded different were associated with a typical visual N2 modulation and the absence of an auditory N2 modulation, consistent with previous findings. However, when we increased the perceptual overlap between the auditory stimuli, a large no-go N2 was observed. These findings are discussed in terms of existing hypotheses of the N2, and clarify why previous studies have not found an N2 modulation in auditory go/no-go tasks.
Nieuwenhuis
Sander
S
Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. stn20@dds.nl
Yeung
Nick
N
Cohen
Jonathan D
JD
D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*