Context Dependence Signature, Stimulus Properties and Stimulus Probability as Predictors of ERP Amplitude Variability

Typically, in an oddball paradigm with two experimental conditions, the longer the time between novels the greater P3a amplitude. Here the research question is: Does an oddball paradigm maintain the greater P3a amplitude under several experimental conditions? An EEG study was carried out with an oddball number parity decision task having four conditions in control and schizophrenic participants. Contrary to previous findings (Gonsalvez and Polich, 2002; Polich, 2007) in control participants, non-correlation was found between the time of a novel (N) stimulus condition to the next novel condition and P3a amplitude. Moreover, with an innovative method for stimulus properties extraction features and EEG analysis, single trial across-subject averaging of participants’ data revealed significant correlations (r > 0.3) of stimulus properties (such as probability, frequency, amplitude, and duration) on P300, and even r > 0.5 was found when N was an environmental sound in schizophrenic patients. Therefore, stimulus properties are strong markers of some of the features in the P3a wave. Finally, a context analysis of ERP waves across electrodes revealed a consistent modulation in novel appearance for MisMatch Negativity in schizophrenia. A supplementary analysis running linear modeling (LIMO) in EEG was also provided (see Supplementary Material). Therefore, in a multiple condition task: stimulus properties and their temporal properties are strong markers of some of the features in the P300 wave. An interpretation was done based on differences between controls and schizophrenics relate to differences in the operation of implicit memory for stimulus properties and stronger correlations were observed within groups related contextual and episodic processes.