The relationship between P300 amplitude and regional gray matter volumes depends upon the attentional system engaged

Judith M. Ford, Edith V. Sullivan, Laura Marsh, Patricia M. White, Kelvin O. Lim, Adolf Pfefferbaum

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

134 Scopus citations

Abstract

Event-related potentials (ERPs) and brain magnetic resonance images (MRIs) were acquired from 28 normal men, age 21-60 years. ERPs were recorded during 3 paradigms designed to elicit automatic or effortful attention, and a combination of both. MRI-derived measures of brain gray matter, white matter and cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) volumes were computed from frontal, parietal and temporal lobes. P300 amplitude correlated significantly with gray matter volumes but not with white matter or CSF volumes. Furthermore, the relationships between P300 amplitude and gray matter volumes reflected functional rather than direct topographical relationships: P300 recorded at Pz during automatically elicited attention correlated significantly with frontal but not parietal lobe gray matter volumes, P300 recorded during effortful attention correlated significantly with parietal but not frontal lobe gray matter volumes, and P300 recorded when both types of attention were invoked correlated significantly with both frontal and parietal gray matter volumes. Startle blinks, also elicited during automatic attention-engaging paradigms, were significantly correlated with frontal but not parietal lobe gray matter volumes. There was no evidence for a direct spatial relationship between P300 amplitude and the gray matter volumes underlying the recording electrode.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)214-228
Number of pages15
JournalElectroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology
Volume90
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1994

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Work on this project was supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs, The National Institute of Health (MH30854, AA05965), and The National Institute of Mental Health (MH40052).

Keywords

  • Event-related potentials
  • Gray matter volumes
  • Magnetic resonance imaging
  • P300 amplitude

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