Abstract
Objective: Cognitive event-related potentials (especially P300) have long been used to explore attentional
processes. The aim of this study was to identify the cortical areas involved in P300 generation during a
selective attention task.
Methods: 128 channel electroencephalograms were recorded in 15 healthy controls performing a three-stimulus visual oddball paradigm, in order to identify distracter- and target-elicited P300 components. For each subject, the P300 sources were localized using standardized weighted low-resolution electro-magnetic tomography (swLORETA). One sample and paired T-tests were performed using SPM5.
Results: Common sources for both P300 components were observed within a large frontoparietal network, including the frontal eye field and dorsal parietal cortex (i.e. the attentional dorsal frontopari-etal network). More inferior parietal areas, prefrontal and cingulate cortices (i.e. the attentional ventral frontoparietal network) were also involved in the generation of target-elicited P300.
Conclusions: These results suggest that distracter- and target-elicited P300 are both generated by the
dorsal frontoparietal network. Moreover, target processing recruits a specific ventral network.
Significance: The data agrees with the literature reports using other methods and should help to improve our knowledge of the cerebral networks underlying attentional processes.
The paper provides a good literature review and methodological approach of this promising technique.