Parietal P3 response as an indicator of stimulus categorization: increased P3 amplitude to categorically deviant...

Two experiments were performed in which we compared the effects of selected non-deviant versus categorically deviant stimuli on parietal P3 under a variety of conditions in which one, both, or neither stimulus was a target of an experimental task. Subjects were repeatedly presented with series of 8 numeric stimuli and 1 alphabetic (Deviant) stimulus. P3 amplitudes to target and nontarget Deviant stimuli were consistently and significantly larger than to other, non-deviant targets and nontargets, respectively. Nontarget Deviant stimuli evoked P3 amplitudes comparable to those evoked by low-probability non-deviant targets. The observed differences indicate that P3 amplitude is a sensitive indicator of perceived category differences, and that the effect of category deviance on parietal P3 amplitude is independent of task response classification (target or nontarget) and of response probability.