What’s my name? P300 event-related potential responses to participant’s own name versus a nickname
Abstract
The P300 is a brainwave that is often associated with attention allocation. Previous research has demonstrated that the P300 is sensitive to self-relevance. Meaning, a participant elicits a large P300 when presented with autobiographical information, such as their own name. This effect has been extended to include other types of self-relevant presentations, including personal belongings. This suggests that our brain’s self-relevant attentional bias may be broader than what has been previously speculated. So, what makes something “self-relevant”? Does it have to do with emotion, or is it simply a matter of familiarity? To investigate this question, we measured P300s in response to the participant’s own name, and an animal name. The participant was then told that animal name would be their nickname for the study, and the P300 was measured again. For each of 6 days following the completion of the study, the participant filled out a survey stating their assigned nickname. On the 7th day, the participant returned to the lab and P300s from their own name and the nickname were measured again. We then administered a survey to find out how participants felt about their own name (example item: “I like my name.”). We expect to find that the P300 elicited by the participant’s nickname increases over time as they become more familiar with it. However, it likely will not become as robust as their actual name. Given the broad range of stimuli used in self-relevant experiments, we do not expect participant sentiment towards one’s name to correlate with their self-name P300. The current study will inform studies of self-relevance by helping to clarify the neural origins of self-referential processing.
Start Time
16-4-2025 1:30 PM
End Time
16-4-2025 4:00 PM
Presentation Type
Poster
Presentation Category
Social Sciences
Student Type
Undergraduate Student
Faculty Mentor
Eric Sellers
Faculty Department
Psychology
What’s my name? P300 event-related potential responses to participant’s own name versus a nickname
The P300 is a brainwave that is often associated with attention allocation. Previous research has demonstrated that the P300 is sensitive to self-relevance. Meaning, a participant elicits a large P300 when presented with autobiographical information, such as their own name. This effect has been extended to include other types of self-relevant presentations, including personal belongings. This suggests that our brain’s self-relevant attentional bias may be broader than what has been previously speculated. So, what makes something “self-relevant”? Does it have to do with emotion, or is it simply a matter of familiarity? To investigate this question, we measured P300s in response to the participant’s own name, and an animal name. The participant was then told that animal name would be their nickname for the study, and the P300 was measured again. For each of 6 days following the completion of the study, the participant filled out a survey stating their assigned nickname. On the 7th day, the participant returned to the lab and P300s from their own name and the nickname were measured again. We then administered a survey to find out how participants felt about their own name (example item: “I like my name.”). We expect to find that the P300 elicited by the participant’s nickname increases over time as they become more familiar with it. However, it likely will not become as robust as their actual name. Given the broad range of stimuli used in self-relevant experiments, we do not expect participant sentiment towards one’s name to correlate with their self-name P300. The current study will inform studies of self-relevance by helping to clarify the neural origins of self-referential processing.