Age-sensitivity of P3 in high-functioning adults.

In their interesting paper, Daffner et al. [Daffner KR, Ryan KK, Williams DM, Budson AE, Rentz DM, Scinto LFM, et al. Age-related differences in novelty and target processing among cognitively healthy high performing adults. Neurobiol Aging 2005;26:1283-95] argue that previous studies have found changes in ERP components in response to novel and target stimuli due to two methodological factors: (1) lack of control for differences in level of cognitive status between age groups, and (2) not controlling for a non-specific age-related processing difference for all stimulus types (standards, targets, and novel). The questions raised by Daffner et al. are interesting, but based on existing literature, their conclusion seems premature. In the following, we will present examples from empirical literature as well as re-analyses of some of our own work to illustrate problematic aspects of Daffner et al.'s position.