P3b: Towards some decision about memory

In the October 2007 issue of this journal, John Polich has published a review on the P300 component of the event-related EEG potential (Polich, 2007). He suggests this hypothesis: “P300 … is elicited when stimulus detection engages memory operations” (Abstract, p. 21281). To detail, P300 consists of the subcomponents P3a and P3b, with P3a reflecting the stimulus detection part and P3b providing the link to memory: “P3a originates from stimulus-driven frontal attention mechanisms … whereas P3b originates from temporal–parietal activity associated with attention and appears related to subsequent memory processing” (ibidem).