Latent Components of Event-Related Potentials in a Visual Cued Go/NoGo Task

Abstract

Parallel factor analysis was tested for potential to separate the hidden functionally different components of event-related potentials (ERPs) in a visual cued Go/NoGo task. ERPs were recorded in 351 healthy subjects aged 18–55 years. In the parallel factor analysis model, different components were found to describe a number of well-known ERP waves associated with conflict detection, switching, decision making, and other processes. Based on the waveform analysis of the components, a working hypothesis was proposed to describe the sequence that the processes take to occur in the brain when Go and NoGo stimuli are presented in a Go/NoGo task. Parallel factor analysis thus proved to provide an efficient tool and to allow another viewpoint on brain processes as compared with conventional methods of ERP studies.