P300 sequence effects differ between children and adults for auditory stimuli

Variation of the P300 component was studied in normal children and adults during an auditory oddball paradigm. In children, the target stimuli that were preceded by a large number of standard stimuli elicited about twice as large P300 with a significantly shorter latency, a more widespread distribution, and an earlier positivity in the frontal area than those that were preceded by a small number of standard stimuli. The P300 variation was not as marked in adults as in children. Based on the context updating theory of the P300, the finding suggests that a long intertarget interval (ITI) results in a profound decay of the neural representation of the target stimulus in children; consequently, more resources are needed to update the neural representation, and the target may even be processed as a novel input. The P300 variation may provide information about the brain functions related to memory, attention, and orienting in children. This variation should be considered when assessing cognitive brain functions with event-related potentials in children.