Development of response activation and inhibition in a selective stop-signal task.

To gain more insight into the development of action control, the current brain potential study examined response selection, activation, and selective inhibition during choice- and stop-signal processing in three age groups (8-, 12-, and 21-year-olds). Results revealed that age groups differed in the implementation of proactive control; children slowed their go response and showed reduced cortical motor output compared to adults. On failed inhibition trials, children were less able than adults to suppress muscle output resulting in increased partial-inhibition rates.

A fast and reliable method for simultaneous waveform, amplitude and latency estimation of single-trial EEG/MEG data.

The amplitude and latency of single-trial EEG/MEG signals may provide valuable information concerning human brain functioning. In this article we propose a new method to reliably estimate single-trial amplitude and latency of EEG/MEG signals. The advantages of the method are fourfold.

Lifespan changes in global and selective stopping and performance adjustments.

This study examined stopping and performance adjustments in four age groups (M ages: 8, 12, 21, and 76 years). All participants performed on three tasks, a standard two-choice task and the same task in which stop-signal trials were inserted requiring either the suppression of the response activated by the choice stimulus (global stop task) or the suppression of the response when one stop-signal was presented but not when the other stop-signal occurred (selective stop task). The results showed that global stopping was faster than selective stopping in all age groups.

Lifespan changes in motor activation and inhibition during choice reactions: a Laplacian ERP study.

Response speed improves from childhood to early adulthood and declines steadily with advancing age. The present event-related brain potential (ERP) study explored the contribution of the primary motor cortex (M1) to lifespan changes in response speed and accuracy using a choice reaction time (RT) task. Two groups of children (8 and 12 years) and two groups of adults (21 and 76 years) responded to left- or right-pointing arrows.

Processing of global and selective stop signals: application of Donders' subtraction method to stop-signal task performance.

This paper applied Donders' subtraction method to examine the processing of global and selective stop signals in the stop-signal paradigm. Participants performed on three different versions of the stop task: a global task and two selective tasks. A global task required participants to inhibit their response to a go signal whenever a stop signal was presented (Stop-a task).

Event-related potentials indicate motivational relevance of cocaine cues in abstinent cocaine addicts.

Rationale: Motivational drive and its underlying affect-related states are the core mechanisms that precede the seeking and taking of drugs in substance dependence.

Objective: The present study aimed to investigate the motivational relevance of cocaine cues and whether or not an appetitive emotional system is involved employing event-related potential (ERP) measurements.

Methods: Cocaine-addicted subjects and healthy controls were exposed to neutral and cocaine-related pictures whilst ERPs were recorded simultaneously over frontal, parietal and midline sites.