Event-related potential evidence of similarities and differences between prospective memory and vigilance

Abstract

There are several similarities between prospective memory (PM) and vigilance, the present study aimed to examine the relationship between PM and vigilance using event-related potentials (ERP). Behavioral results indicated that PM showed longer reaction time and less accuracy than vigilance. The ERP data revealed that PM and vigilance did not show significant difference during 200-400ms in occipital region, i.e., the cue detection process; vigilance evoked more parietal positivity (related to categorization and monitoring process) than PM, but it may be related to the difference of ongoing task and non-target trials; PM evoked more negative slow wave in frontal region, suggesting postretrieval evaluations of PM.