About ERP's

Event-related potential (ERP) technique: The event-related potential (ERP) technique has been widely used for decades to study brain activity linked to sensory, attentional, and cognitive processes across the lifespan. ERPs are safe, noninvasive, and currently the most practical method for studying the neural basis of language development in individuals such as infants, who are not readily tested using other brain imaging techniques. ERPs provide a direct and instantaneous measure of changes in brain activity on a millisecond by millisecond basis linked to specific cognitive events.

Large populations of cortical neurons aligned in parallel and firing simultaneously generate electric fields that can be recorded from electrodes placed on the scalp. This EEG activity is sampled twice every millisecond as the participant watches or listens to experimental stimuli. For all of our studies, standardized and experimental behavioural measures are used to establish the functional significance of ERP components. Students in our lab will learn how to record, average, analyse, and interpret ERP data.

Event-Related potential (ERP) Technique

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