The Component Structure of Event-Related Potentials in the P300 Speller Paradigm

We investigated the componential structure of event-related potentials elicited while participants use the P300 BCI. Six healthy participants "typed" all characters in a 6 x 6 matrix twice in a random sequence. A principal component analysis indicated that in addition to the P300, target flashes elicited an earlier frontal positivity, possibly a Novelty P3. The amplitudes of both P300 and the Novelty P3 varied with the matrix row in which the target character was located. However, the P300 elicited by row flashes was largest for targets in the lower part of the matrix, whereas the Novelty P3 elicited by column flashes was largest in the top part. Classification accuracy using stepwise linear discriminant analysis mirrored the pattern in the Novelty P3 (an accuracy difference of 0.1 between rows 1 and 6). When separate classifiers were generated to rely solely on the P300 or solely on the Novelty P3, the latter function led to higher accuracy (a mean accuracy difference of about 0.2 between classifiers). A possible explanation is that some nontarget flashes elicit a P300, leading to lower selection accuracy of the respective classifier. In an additional set of data from six different participants we replicated the ERP structure of the initial analyses and characterized the spatial distributions more closely by using a dense electrode array. Overall, our findings provide new insights in the componential structure of ERPs elicited in the P300 speller paradigm and have important implications for optimizing the speller's selection accuracy.