Data were smoothed using a simple 5-point moving average to reduce high-frequency noise. The resulting waveforms were baseline corrected on a trial-by-trial basis according to the average baseline activity for each response device during the 200 msec pre-stimulus period on each trial. A response (either correct or incorrect) was said to have occurred in a trial if at any point after the target stimulus onset until the end of the trial, two criteria were satisfied: selleck inhibitor (i) the force measured was greater than 3 SDs from the mean force measured during the pre-stimulus baseline period and that was followed by at least 18/20 points that also reached this threshold; and (ii)

there was an increase in response by at least .01 V over the following 100 points or less. Response onset time (RT) was defined as the first point that satisfied these criteria. Peak response was determined as the maximum amplitude of the response made in a trial that was surrounded by points on either side with the same or lower amplitude. Outliers

were defined as any responses greater than three standard deviations (SDs) away from the mean response time for that hand, in that condition (congruent or incongruent) in that testing session. Remaining correct response times were entered into a 2 (hand) × 2 (congruency) × 2 (session) factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA). There was no significant effect of session (morning or afternoon) on RTs, and the effect of session did not interact

BIBF 1120 with any of the other factors (all F’s < 1). Therefore, subsequent analyses collapse across session. The key motivation in conducting Experiment 1 was to examine whether responses with Patient SA's alien hand were more susceptible to priming by object affordances relative to responses with her non-alien hand. Her responses were generally slower than those reported for healthy adults on this task (see McBride et al., 2012b). Moreover, SA's left (non-alien) hand responses were significantly faster than right (alien) hand responses [see Fig. 3; left mean = 836 msec vs right = 1090 msec, F(1, 497) = 307.47, p < .001]. Furthermore, stimuli which afforded a congruent response produced faster Linifanib (ABT-869) reactions than stimuli which afforded an incongruent response [incongruent mean = 983 msec; congruent mean = 944 msec; F(1, 497) = 7.13, p = .008]. Importantly, the congruency effect was much larger for the alien than for the non-alien hand [significant congruency × hand interaction: F(1, 497) = 6.62, p = .010]. This interaction is shown in Fig. 3A. The congruency effect shown in the alien hand (76 msec) was several times larger than we have found using identical apparatus in healthy young controls (mean of median RTs = 16 msec, see McBride et al., 2012b). We also have as yet unpublished data on this task from elderly healthy controls (N = 26; aged 54–75 years; mean age = 64 years; one participant, who showed an average affordance effect of −111 msec, was removed as an outlier).