The time course of novelty processing in sensation seeking: an ERP study

Novelty processing is critical for human survival in a rapidly changing environment. However, how and when the orientation attention reflected by novelty processing is modulated by personality elements such as sensation seeking is still opened. The present study investigated the time course of novelty processing in sensation seeking by recording the event-related potentials (ERPs) in a visual novelty oddball task. High and low sensation seekers performed a visual oddball task, in which participants were instructed to detect an inverted triangle (target) and ignore both upright triangle (standard) and unrepeated line drawings of pseudo-objects deviant from participants' long-term memory (novelty). While there were no group differences in ERPs to standard and target stimuli, ERPs to novel stimuli showed a strong modulation by sensation seeking trait. The low sensation seekers, compared with the high sensation seekers, exhibited an increased N2 to novel stimuli at frontal sites. Moreover, the Pd3 component reflecting purely novelty processing was enhanced and less habituated in the high sensation seeking participants. The current findings implicated that low sensation seekers showed sensitivity to novelty detection, whereas high sensation seekers displayed stronger and more sustained novelty appraisal.