Event-related potentials were recorded (N = 18) in a hybrid go/no-go Eriksen flanker task to study the neural correlates of response inhibition. Three letters were assigned to either a left-hand, a right-hand, or a no-go response. These three letters appeared either as targets signaling the assigned response or as flankers surrounding the target. The lateralized readiness potentials revealed erroneous cortical response priming on go trials, in which the target and flankers were assigned to different hands, as well as on no-go trials, in which the flankers primed one of the two hands. Exactly these two conditions were accompanied by a fronto-central amplitude modulation of the N200, suggesting that this ERP component may reflect inhibitory executive functions. The data replicate and extend recent studies by Kopp, Rist, and Mattler (1996) and Kopp, Mattler, Goertz, and Rist (1996) .

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When subjects identified a target among distractors in a rapid serial visual presentation task, the detection of a subsequent target is impaired (attentional blink). By measuring event-related potentials (ERPs) we investigated if the processing of an unidentified prime word elicits the N400 semantic priming effect. Subjects (N = 12) had to identify three target words among distractors in a rapid serial visual presentation task. We varied the association strength between a prime (second target) and a probe (third target). The detection of the prime was impaired. Missed primes did not elicit a P300, indicating that they were not explicitly recognized. Despite this difference between recognized and missed primes, the N400 effect was present in both cases. This result suggests that automatic spread of activation (ASA) can be evoked by missed primes within the attentional blink. It furthermore demonstrates that ASA is sufficient to evoke the N400 effect.

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