Effects of a go/nogo task on event-related potentials following somatosensory stimulation.
OBJECTIVE
We investigated the effects of a go/nogo task on event-related potentials (ERPs) evoked by somatosensory stimuli.


METHODS
ERPs following electrical stimulation of the second (go stimulus) or fifth (nogo stimulus) left-handed digit were recorded from 9 subjects. The recordings were conducted in 3 conditions: Control, Count and Movement. The subjects were instructed to count the go stimuli silently in Count, and respond to the go stimuli by grasping right hands in Movement. Go and nogo stimuli were presented at an even probability.


RESULTS
N140 was recorded in all conditions and P300 in Count and Movement. The mean amplitudes of the nogo stimuli in the interval 140-200 msec and nogo-N140 amplitude were significantly more negative than those of the go stimuli in Count or Movement. Nogo-P300 was larger in amplitude than go-P300 in Movement but not Count. The effect of P300 was applied to Fz and Cz, but not at Pz.


CONCLUSIONS
In the present study, effects of a somatosensory go/nogo task on ERPs were investigated, and our findings were very similar to those of previous studies using visual and auditory go/nogo tasks. Therefore, we suggest that cortical activities relating to go/nogo tasks are not dependent on sensory modalities.


CONCLUSIONS
The present study showed for the first time the go/nogo effects on somatosensory-evoked ERPs. These effects were similar to those in visual and auditory ERP studies.
Nakata
Hiroki
H
Department of Integrative Physiology, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Myodaiji, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan. nakata@nips.ac.jp
Inui
Koji
K
Nishihira
Yoshiaki
Y
Hatta
Arihiro
A
Sakamoto
Masanori
M
Kida
Tetsuo
T
Wasaka
Toshiaki
T
Kakigi
Ryusuke
R
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005073:Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*