Inter-individual variability of oscillatory responses to subject's own name. A single-subject analysis

In previous studies event-related potentials and oscillations in response to subject's own name have been analyzed extensively on group-level in healthy subjects and in patients with a disorder of consciousness. Subject's own name as a deviant produces a P3. With equiprobable stimuli, non-phase-locked alpha oscillations are smaller in response to subject's own name compared to other names or subject's own name backwards. However, little is known about replicability on a single-subject level. Seventeen healthy subjects were assessed in an own-name paradigm with equiprobable stimuli of subject's own name, another name, and subject's own name backwards. Event-related potentials and non-phase locked oscillations were analyzed with single-subject, non-parametric statistics. No consistent results were found either for ERPs or for the non-phase locked changes of oscillatory activities. Only 4 subjects showed a robust effect as expected, that is, a lower activity in the alpha-beta range to subject's own name compared to other conditions. Four subjects elicited a higher activity for subject's own name. Thus, analyzing the EEG reactivity in the own-name paradigm with equiprobable stimuli on a single-subject level yields a high variance between subjects. In future research, single-subject statistics should be applied for examining the validity of physiologic measurements in other paradigms and for examining the pattern of reactivity in patients.