P300 and Slow Wave in a Message Consisting of Two Events

This study is concerned with P300 and Slow Wave in an experimental paradigm in which information is transmitted by a combination of two successive events (a ‘message’). Each event delivered essential information for understanding the message, but the meaning of the message could not be determined until occurrence of the second event. The amount of information in each event was varied by varying its perceptual difficulty. Increasing perceptual difficulty causes an information loss, termed equivocation. A positive Slow Wave was elicited by both events. Slow wave was clearly increased in amplitude by equivocation in the eliciting event, and less clearly increased in amplitude by equivocation in the other event. The first event elicited a small P290 component. It could not be determined whether this component corresponded to P300. The second event elicited a large P300. This component was much reduced in amplitude by equivocation in the second event, but was only moderately reduced in amplitude by equivocation in the first event.