Functional brain-electrical correlates of negative priming in the flanker task: evidence for episodic retrieval.
Negative priming (NP) refers to inefficient responding when previous distractors become targets. NP may reflect persisting inhibition of former distractors and/or retrieval of task-inappropriate information from the primes. In an event-related potential (ERP) study of the flanker task, NP was accompanied by reduced positivity in the P300 time range. The early portion of this effect was shared with a target-repetition condition and hence may indicate retrieval processes cued by repeated stimuli. A subsequent N400-like component was specific for NP and may reflect processing of the retrieved task-inappropriate information. In addition, NP effects on the lateralized readiness potential (LRP) matched predictions of the episodic-retrieval view. NP effects on P300, N400, and response-locked LRP were stronger in participants with above-median behavioral NP, confirming the significance of these ERP effects for NP. Overall, findings support episodic-retrieval explanations of NP.
Gibbons
Henning
H
Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany. hgibbon@gwdg.de
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D004569:Electroencephalography; D018913:Event-Related Potentials, P300 / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult