Naatanen's comments on Donchin and Cohen's study of selective attention seem to derive from a failure to appreciate the relationship between the negative shifts in cortical potentials reported by Naatanen, and Grey Walter's CNV. Naatanen's assertion that slow negative cortical shifts reflect generalized cortical activation is discussed.
DonchinE., & SmithD. B. D.The CNV and P300—two sides of the same coin. Paper given at annual meeting of the American EEG Society, San Francisco, 1968.
3.
KoppelB. S.WittnerW. K., & WarrickG. L.The effects of stimulus differences, light intervals and selective attention on the amplitude of the visual average evoked potential in man. EEG clin. Neurophysiol., 1969, 26, 619–622.
4.
McAdamD. W.Increases in CNS excitability during negative cortical slow potentials in man. EEG clin. Neurophysiol., 1969, 25, 216–219.
5.
NaatanenR.Selective attention and evoked potentials. Ann. Acad. Sci. Fenn. B., 1967, 151, 1. (Helsinki, Suomalaisen Kirijallisunnden Kirjapaino Dy)
6.
NaatanenR.Anticipation of relevant stimuli and evoked potentials: a comment on Donchin's and Cohen's “Average evoked potentials and intramodality selective attention.”Percept. mot. Skills, 1969, 28, 639–646.
7.
SmithD. B. D.DonchinE.CohenL., & StarrA.Auditory average evoked potentials in man during selective binaural listening. EEG clin. Neurophysiol., in press.
8.
WalterW. G.CooperR.AldridgeV. J.McCallumW. C., & WinterA. L.Contingent negative variations, an electrical sign of sensorimotor association and expectancy in the human brain. Nature (Lond.), 1964, 204, 380–384.