title: Basic information processing of neurotics and stables: an experimental ERP approach to personality and distractibility.
abstract: The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of level of neuroticism on electrophysiological event-related potentials (ERPs) to different kinds of stimuli. The neuroticism items from the NEO-PI-R were administered to 168 female, right-handed undergraduates between 19 and 29 years of age. 20 highly neurotic and 22 highly stable persons underwent an ERP task that was designed to be a combination of an auditory P3a and a visual P3b oddball task. No significant differences in the P3a and P3b were detected. It is concluded that highly neurotic and highly stable persons do not differ in fast neurocognitive processing of neutral stimuli, and that cognitive differences between the groups may be located at another level in the sequence of information processing stages.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of Oslo, Norway. andersmf@psykologi.uio.no
authors.forename: Anders M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Fjell
authors.forename: Kristine B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Walhovd
authors.forename: Sindre
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Meling
authors.forename: Marte B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Johansen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003071:Cognition; D018913:Event-Related Potentials, P300; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes; D009497:Neurotic Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index