抄録
The effect of psychological factors on readiness potential (RP) was examined in 12 healthy, right-handed subjects. RP was recorded from Cz, C3' and C4' areas under the design of manipulating the task difficulty and motivational state. Each subject was asked to pull a lever with the right index finger at his own pace and at a required force level. Subjects heard one of three different pip-tones immediately after each motor performance depending on whether their force-level was adequate to, below or above the required level.
Preceeding the motor performance, RP in a difficult task under no reward condition (DT) started to appear earlier than that in an easy task under the same no reward condition (ET). Moreover, RP in the easy task under a reward condition (ER) started to appear much earlier than that in ET, and so did RP in the difficult task under the reward condition (DR). And, irrespective of whether the task was performed under the reward condition or not, RP obtained immediately after the bad (incorrect) motor performance started to appear earlier than that obtained after the good (correct) one. Based on these results, discussion was made on the effects of the psychological process such as mental set or mental effort on RP.
