N1pc reversal following repeated eccentric visual stimulation

Early event‐related potential (ERP) hemispheric asymmetries recorded at occipitoparietal sites are usually observed following the sudden onset of a lateral peripheral stimulus. This is usually reflected in an onset‐locked larger N1 over the posterior contralateral hemisphere relative to the ipsilateral hemisphere, an early ERP asymmetry labeled N1pc. When the peripheral sudden onset is followed by a central stimulus, or by a bilaterally balanced visual array of stimuli, these events evoke a reversed N1pc, that is, a larger N1 over the hemisphere ipsilateral to the peripheral sudden onset. This N1pc reversal has been taken as evidence for a remapping of the visual space from an absolute, retinally based frame of reference to a relative, attentionally based frame of reference that codes the spatial positions of objects relative to the peripheral sudden onset, rather than relative to the fovea. Here, we pit the reference frame‐remapping account against an alternative account based on reduced neural reactivity following the peripheral sudden onset. In three experiments, we varied the spatial location of an object relative to a preceding sudden onset, and tested the opposite predictions generated by the frame‐remapping and the reduced neural reactivity accounts. Taken together, the results from the present experiments were consistent with the reduced neural reactivity account and inconsistent with the frame‐remapping account.