Comparison of chemosensory, auditory and visual event-related potential amplitudes

To enhance understanding of neuropsychological processing underlying chemosensory event-related potentials (CSERPs), the objective of the present study was to compare CSERPs with auditory (AERPs) and visual event-related potentials (VERPs), and to approach the question of similarities in neuropsychological processing by means of correlation and cluster analyses. A multisensory ERP protocol was used, in which olfactory/chemosomatosensory (pyridine), auditory (1000-Hz tone) and visual (white circle) stimuli were presented in a pseudo-randomized sequence to 18 young, healthy adults. The results show (1) a morphological relation between P2 and P3 components that is different for the chemosensory than for the auditory and visual modalities, (2) a relatively weak association between the chemosensory and auditory/visual modalities for P3 in terms of both correlation and cluster, and (3) a P2/P3 cluster for the chemosensory but not auditory or visual modality. This supports the claim that the chemosensory P2 and P3 components reflect similar neuropsychological processes.