Long-term test-retest reliability of the P3 NoGo wave and two independent components decomposed from the P3 NoGo wave in a visual Go/NoGo task

•The P3 NoGo wave can be decomposed into two components.•Their long term test–retest reliability was investigated in 26 individuals.•Excellent test–retest reliability was found for latency and good for amplitude.•Best result was found by use of the fractional area method compared to peak method.

The objective of the current study was to determine long-term test-retest reliability of the P3 NoGo wave as well as two independent components (IC P3 NoGo early and IC P3 NoGo late) decomposed from this wave by independent component analysis (ICA). For this purpose 19-channel EEG was recorded during a cued visual Go/NoGo task. First, spatial filters of the two independent components (ICs) were obtained by application of ICA to ERPs of 102 healthy adults. Second, in 26 individuals, ERPs were recorded from the same task a second time 6–18 months after the first recording. Statistical analyses were performed on both the P3 NoGo waves and the activation curves of the two ICs from both recordings. Amplitude and latency were estimated by “peak” and “fractional area” (FA) methods for both the P3 NoGo wave and ICs. Intraclass correlations (ICC) for latency were excellent (ICC > .90) for both the P3 NoGo wave and the two ICs when measured with the FA method, and good (ICC > .75) for amplitude measured by both methods (FA or peak). We conclude that the long-term stability of P3 NoGo wave and the two IC makes them well suited for reliable assessment of cognitive control function in research and clinic.