P3 event-related evoked potential in young adults.

ABSTRACT

P3 component of event related potential reflects memory and decision making processes. It has been applied as an index of information processing in a wide variety of normal and cognitive impaired subjects. Scalp P3 was elicited in 24 male neurologically and audiologically normal young subjects of 17-20 years (Av. 17.7) of age. Standard auditory 'Oddball' paradigm involving simple discrimination task of concentrating on infrequent (target) stimulus and ignoring frequent (non target) stimulus was employed. Evoked response trials of discriminating 32 target stimuli out of 160 total presented (20% target and 80% non target randomly) were replicated and analysed by computer. Latency of P3 as 305 +/- 18.4 msec and amplitude 6.5 +/- 2.1 uv are being reported which are comparable with age and sex matched subjects of western world.