Evaluating the partial contribution of the P3 event-related potential elicited by auditory oddball stimuli during the Stroop task

The cognitive load of a precisely timed task, such as the Stroop task, may be measured through the use of event-related potentials (ERPs). To determine the time at which cognitive load is at its peak, oddball tones may be applied at various times surrounding a cognitive task. However, we need to determine whether the simultaneous presentation of auditory and visual stimuli would mask a potential change in P3 in an ERP-producing task. If the contribution of the Stroop stimulus is too large, then Stroop ERP with oddball stimuli occurring at different timepoints may not be directly comparable across the various timepoints due to the contribution of the Stroop ERP. The aim of this study was to measure the magnitude of the difference wave between that of simultaneously presented stimuli and that of linearly added stimuli of separate responses. Participants were fitted with a dry-sensor EEG cap and were presented with a series of Stroop and auditory stimuli. For some Stroop stimuli, auditory stimuli occurred simultaneously or in a close time proximity to the Stroop stimuli. We sought to estimate the linear contribution of the ERP from Stroop and oddball stimuli. We found that the magnitude of the difference waves were 3.07 ± 1.65 μV and 2.82 ± 1.34 μV for congruent and incongruent stimuli, respectively. As the average amplitude in the P3 region for both the congruent and incongruent difference waves was lower than the magnitude of the auditory oddball presented simultaneously with Stroop stimuli (12.13 ± 1.00 μV for congruent and 11.78 ± 1.05 μV for incongruent Stroop), we expect that the contribution of P3 auditory oddball would not mask a potential Stroop effect even if the timing of the auditory oddball stimuli were experimentally manipulated, a direction that we hope to explore in future work. In conclusion, we determine this paradigm is suitable for measuring cognitive load in precisely timed tasks.Clinical Relevance - This study establishes the efficacy of presenting a Stroop task as a proxy for a cognitive challenge that could cause cognitive overload.