Effects of corollary discharge on event-related potentials during selective attention task in healthy men and women

Corollary discharge is a brain electrical activity associated with self-monitoring, which distinguishes self from others in thoughts or behaviors. Corollary discharge can be non-invasively assessed using event-related potential (ERP) recordings in humans. Previous studies have revealed that the amplitude of the N100 component elicited during an "odd-ball" task is reduced while a healthy subject is vocalizing, which may index the effect of corollary discharge on auditory ERPs. In this study, we attempted to assess the effect of vocalization on ERP components including N100, mismatch negativity (MMN), negative difference wave (Nd), and P300 during a selective attention task in 22 healthy adults. We also evaluated the possible contribution of gender to these effects. N100 amplitudes elicited by unattended standard stimuli were reduced under the vocalization condition compared with those under the baseline condition. However, there were no significant effects of vocalization on MMN, Nd or P300. Moreover, there was no significant effect of gender to the corollary discharge. These results suggest that the effect of corollary discharge on auditory ERPs is limited to the perceptual stage of information processing in healthy men and women.