Olfactory, auditory, and visual ERPs from single trials: no evidence for habituation

Event-related potentials (ERPs) using olfactory, auditory, and visual stimuli were recorded from young adults to assess possible component habituation across single trials among modalities. A single-stimulus ERP paradigm was used that employed a 10-min inter-stimulus interval (ISI) to minimize possible sensory adaptation and three stimulus trials for each modality to assess initial habituation effects. The present findings were: (1) P3 amplitude does not habituate appreciably over the initial three trials but may increase from the first to second trial. (2) ERPs from a single-stimulus paradigm with a very long ISI produce significantly correlated component amplitudes for the olfactory, auditory, and visual modalities. (3) P3 amplitude from olfactory stimuli demonstrated scalp topography similar to that for auditory and visual ERPs. These findings suggest that the single-stimulus task using a long ISI produces highly comparable and stable P3 components from olfactory, auditory, and visual stimuli. Application of single-stimulus paradigm to olfactory ERP methods is supported.