Encoding of perceptual categorical information has been observed in later cognitive processing like memory encoding and maintenance, starting around 300 ms after stimulus onset (P300). However, it remains open whether categorical information is also encoded in early perceptual processing steps (reflected in the mismatch negativity component; vMMN). The main goal of this study was to assess the influence of categorical information on both early perceptual (i.e., vMMN component) and later cognitive (i.e., P300 component) processing within one paradigm. Hence, we combined an oddball paradigm with a delayed memory task. We used five-dot patterns belonging to different categories even though categorical information is not mirrored in their physical characteristics. Distinct vMMNs were observed for patterns belonging to the same as compared to different categories, suggesting that abstract categorical information was encoded during early perceptual processing. However, inconsistent with prior studies, we observed no effect of categories on the P300, indicating no additional encoding of categorical information in later cognitive stages of processing. Our findings emphasize that the encoding of categorical information depends on specific task demands and hence is more flexible and dynamic than previously suggested.

在刺激发生后约300毫秒（P300）开始，在后来的认知处理（如记忆编码和维护）中已观察到感知类别信息的编码。但是，是否在早期的感知处理步骤中也对分类信息进行编码（反映在失配否定性分量； vMMN中）仍然是未知的。这项研究的主要目的是评估分类信息对一个范式中早期感知（即vMMN分量）和后期认知（即P300分量）处理的影响。因此，我们将奇数球范例与延迟的记忆任务结合在一起。我们使用了属于不同类别的五点模式，即使分类信息没有在其物理特征上反映出来。与不同类别相比，观察到不同的vMMN属于同一模式，这表明在早期感知处理期间对抽象类别信息进行了编码。但是，与先前的研究不一致，我们没有观察到类别对P300的影响，这表明在处理的后期认知阶段中没有分类信息的其他编码。我们的发现强调，分类信息的编码取决于特定的任务需求，因此比以前建议的更加灵活和动态。