P300 habituation patterns: individual differences from ultradian rhythms.

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were elicited with auditory stimuli from normal subjects every 10 min. for 10 successive trial blocks to assess ultradian influences on the P300 component. Based on a theoretical analysis of the underlying relationship between background EEG activity and P300 variability, subjects were divided into two groups according to whether P300 amplitude increased or decreased initially over trial blocks. P300 amplitude habituated across trial blocks. P300 latency produced systematic cyclical variation with approximately a 90-min. period that was opposite in phase for the different subject groups. The findings suggest that ultradian rhythms contribute to P300 latency variability. The implications of the results for P300 in applied settings are discussed.