Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

What Can fMRI Add to the ERP Story?

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
EEG - fMRI

For decades, event-related potentials (ERPs) have been successfully used in the investigation of human brain function, both in healthy subjects and in patients with neuropsychiatric diseases, and are among the mainstays of noninvasive neuroscience today. They offer objective measurements of brain activity with a high temporal resolution. However, they are limited concerning their spatial information. Accordingly, several methods have been developed to estimate the underlying neural generators, and further strategies have been applied in order to gain information about the ERP generation based on lesion studies or intracranial measurements. The combination of ERPs and fMRI is very promising in terms of adding high spatial information to ERP research. In this chapter, the possibilities and limitations of combining EEG with fMRI are discussed within the historical context of ERP research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Anderer P, Saletu B, et al. (2003) Non-invasive localization of P300 sources in normal aging and age-associated memory impairment. Neurobiol Aging 24(3):463–479

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bela C, Monika B, et al. (2007) Valproate selectively reduces EEG activity in anterior parts of the cortex in patients with idiopathic generalized epilepsy. A low resolution electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) study. Epilepsy Res 75(2 & 3):186–191

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bledowski C, Linden DE, et al. (2007) Combining electrophysiology and functional imaging—different methods for different questions. Trends Cogn Sci 11(12):500–502

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brazdil M, Dobsik M, et al. (2005) Combined event-related fMRI and intracerebral ERP study of an auditory oddball task. Neuroimage 26(1):285–293

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Crick F (1984) Function of the thalamic reticular complex: the searchlight hypothesis. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 81(14):4586–4590

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cuffin BN (1985) A comparison of moving dipole inverse solutions using EEG’s and MEG’s. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 32(11):905–910

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Davis PA (1939) Effects of accoustic stimuli on the waking human brain. J Neurophysiol 2: 494–499

    Google Scholar 

  • Debener S, Ullsperger M, et al. (2005) Trial-by-trial coupling of concurrent electroencephalogram and functional magnetic resonance imaging identifies the dynamics of performance monitoring. J Neurosci 25(50):11730–11737

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dien J, Spencer KM, et al. (2004) Parsing the late positive complex: mental chronometry and the ERP components that inhabit the neighborhood of the P300. Psychophysiology 41(5):665–678

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eichele T, Specht K, et al. (2005) Assessing the spatiotemporal evolution of neuronal activation with single-trial event-related potentials and functional MRI. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102(49):17798–17803

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Falkenstein M, Hohnsbein J, et al. (1994) Effects of choice complexity on different subcomponents of the late positive complex of the event-related potential. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 92(2):148–160

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ford JM, White P, et al. (1994) Schizophrenics have fewer and smaller P300s: a single-trial analysis. Biol Psychiatry 35(2):96–103

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Formisano E, Linden DE, et al. (2002) Tracking the mind’s image in the brain I: time-resolved fMRI during visuospatial mental imagery. Neuron 35(1):185–194

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Formisano E, Goebel R (2003) Tracking cognitive processes with functional MRI mental chronometry. Curr Opin Neurobiol 13(2):174–181

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Friederici AD, Pfeifer E, et al. (1993) Event-related brain potentials during natural speech processing: effects of semantic, morphological and syntactic violations. Brain Res Cogn Brain Res 1(3):183–192

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Friston K, Harrison L, et al. (2008) Multiple sparse priors for the M/EEG inverse problem. Neuroimage 39(3):1104–1120

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Garrido MI, Kilner JM, et al. (2007) Evoked brain responses are generated by feedback loops. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 104(52):20961–20966

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gianotti LR, Kunig G, et al. (2007) Correlation between disease severity and brain electric LORETA tomography in Alzheimer’s disease. Clin Neurophysiol 118(1):186–196

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gottesman II, Gould TD (2003) The endophenotype concept in psychiatry: etymology and strategic intentions. Am J Psychiatry 160(4):636–645

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gray CM, Konig P, et al. (1989) Oscillatory responses in cat visual cortex exhibit inter-columnar synchronization which reflects global stimulus properties. Nature 338(6213):334–337

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Halgren E, Baudena P, et al. (1995a) Intracerebral potentials to rare target and distractor auditory and visual stimuli. I. Superior temporal plane and parietal lobe. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 94(3):191–220

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Halgren E, Baudena P, et al. (1994) Spatio-temporal stages in face and word processing. 2. Depth-recorded potentials in the human frontal and Rolandic cortices [published erratum appears in J Physiol Paris 1994;88(2):following 151]. J Physiol Paris 88(1):51–80

    Google Scholar 

  • Halgren E, Baudena P, et al. (1995b) Intracerebral potentials to rare target and distractor auditory and visual stimuli. II. Medial, lateral and posterior temporal lobe. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 94(4):229–250

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Halgren E, Marinkovic K, Chauvel P (1998) Generators of the late cognitive potentials in auditory and visual oddball tasks. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 106:159–164

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamalainen M, Ilmoniemi RJ (1984) Interpreting measured magnetic fields of the brain: estimates of current distributions (Technical Report TKK-F-A559). Helsinki University of Technology, Finland

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamalainen MS, Ilmoniemi RJ (1994) Interpreting magnetic fields of the brain: minimum norm estimates. Med Biol Eng Comput 32(1):35–42

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hamalainen MS, Sarvas J (1989) Realistic conductivity geometry model of the human head for interpretation of neuromagnetic data. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 36(2):165–171

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hegerl U, Gallinat J, et al. (1994) Intensity dependence of auditory evoked dipole source activity. Int J Psychophysiol 17(1):1–13

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hegerl U, Juckel G, et al. (1995) Schizophrenics with small P300: a subgroup with a neurodevelopmental disturbance and a high risk for tardive dyskinesia? Acta Psychiatr Scand 91(2): 120–125

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Helmholtz H (1853) Ãœber einige Gesetze der Vertheilung elektrischer Ströme in körperlichen Leitern mit der Anwendung auf die thierisch-elektrischen Versuche. Annalen der Physik und Chemie 89:211–233; 353–377

    Google Scholar 

  • Henderson CJ, Butler SR, et al. (1975) The localization of equivalent dipoles of EEG sources by the application of electrical field theory. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 39(2):117–130

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hillyard SA, Hink RF, et al. (1973) Electrical signs of selective attention in the human brain. Science 182(108):177–180

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hinterberger T, Veit R, et al. (2005) Neuronal mechanisms underlying control of a brain-computer interface. Eur J Neurosci 21(11):3169–3181

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes SW, Crunelli V (2005) Thalamic mechanisms of EEG alpha rhythms and their pathological implications. Neuroscientist 11(4):357–372

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ilmoniemi RJ (1993) Models of source currents in the brain. Brain Topogr 5(4):331–336

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Itier RJ, Latinus M, et al. (2006) Face, eye and object early processing: what is the face specificity? Neuroimage 29(2):667–676

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Javitt DC, Spencer KM, et al. (2008) Neurophysiological biomarkers for drug development in schizophrenia. Nat Rev Drug Discov 7(1):68–83

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jeon YW, Polich J (2003) Meta-analysis of P300 and schizophrenia: patients, paradigms, and practical implications. Psychophysiology 40(5):684–701

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Katsanis J, Iacono WG, et al. (1997) P300 event-related potential heritability in monozygotic and dizygotic twins. Psychophysiology 34(1):47–58

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kiang M, Kutas M, et al. (2008) An event-related brain potential study of direct and indirect semantic priming in schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry 165(1):74–81

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kutas M, Hillyard SA (1980) Event-related brain potentials to semantically inappropriate and surprisingly large words. Biol Psychol 11(2):99–116

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Linden DE, Prvulovic D, et al. (1999) The functional neuroanatomy of target detection: an fMRI study of visual and auditory oddball tasks. Cereb Cortex 9(8):815–823

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Llinas RR (1988) The intrinsic electrophysiological properties of mammalian neurons: insights into central nervous system function. Science 242(4886):1654–1664

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lopes da Silva F (1991) Neural mechanisms underlying brain waves: from neural membranes to networks. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 79(2):81–93

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lopes da Silva F (1993) EEG analysis: theory and practice. In: Niedermeyer E, Lopes DS (eds) Electroencephalography. Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, p 1117

    Google Scholar 

  • Mathalon DH, Ford JM, et al. (2000) Trait and state aspects of p300 amplitude reduction in schizophrenia: a retrospective longitudinal study. Biol Psychiatry 47(5):434–449

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McAlonan K, Cavanaugh J, et al. (2006) Attentional modulation of thalamic reticular neurons. J Neurosci 26(16):4444–4450

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy G, Luby M, et al. (1997) Infrequent events transiently activate human prefrontal and parietal cortex as measured by functional MRI. J Neurophysiol 77(3):1630–1634

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy G, Wood CC, et al. (1989) Task-dependent field potentials in human hippocampal formation. J Neurosci 9(12):4253–4268

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Meijs JW, Peters MJ, et al. (1988) Relative influence of model assumptions and measurement procedures in the analysis of the MEG. Med Biol Eng Comput 26(2):136–142

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Menon V, Ford JM, et al. (1997) Combined event-related fMRI and EEG evidence for temporal-parietal cortex activation during target detection. Neuroreport 8(14):3029–3037

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mulert C, Jager L, et al. (2005) Sound level dependence of the primary auditory cortex: Simultaneous measurement with 61-channel EEG and fMRI. Neuroimage 28(1):49–58

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mulert C, Gallinat J, et al. (2001) Reduced event-related current density in the anterior cingulate cortex in schizophrenia. Neuroimage 13(4):589–600

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mulert C, Leicht G, et al. (2007) Auditory cortex and anterior cingulate cortex sources of the early evoked gamma-band response: relationship to task difficulty and mental effort. Neuropsychologia 45(10):2294–2306

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mulert C, Jager L, et al. (2004) Integration of fMRI and simultaneous EEG: towards a comprehensive understanding of localization and time-course of brain activity in target detection. Neuroimage 22(1):83–94

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mulert C, Seifert C, et al. (2008) Single-trial coupling of EEG and fMRI reveals the involvement of anterior cingulate cortex activation in effortful decision making. Neuroimage 42(1):158–168

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Naatanen R, Picton T (1987) The N1 wave of the human electric and magnetic response to sound: a review and an analysis of the component structure. Psychophysiology 24(4):375–425

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nagai Y, Critchley HD, et al. (2004) Brain activity relating to the contingent negative variation: an fMRI investigation. Neuroimage 21(4):1232–1241

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nunez PL, Silberstein RB (2000) On the relationship of synaptic activity to macroscopic measurements: does co-registration of EEG with fMRI make sense? Brain Topogr 13(2):79–96

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pascual-Marqui RD (2002) Standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA): technical details. Methods Find Exp Clin Pharmacol 24( Suppl D):5–12

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pascual-Marqui RD, Lehmann D, et al. (1999) Low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) functional imaging in acute, neuroleptic-naive, first-episode, productive schizophrenia. Psychiatry Res 90(3):169–179

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pascual-Marqui RD, Michel CM, et al. (1994) Low resolution electromagnetic tomography: a new method for localizing electrical activity in the brain. Int J Psychophysiol 18(1):49–65

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Phillips C, Mattout J, et al. (2005) An empirical Bayesian solution to the source reconstruction problem in EEG. Neuroimage 24(4):997–1011

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pizzagalli DA, Oakes TR, et al. (2003) Coupling of theta activity and glucose metabolism in the human rostral anterior cingulate cortex: an EEG/PET study of normal and depressed subjects. Psychophysiology 40(6):939–949

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pizzagalli D, Pascual-Marqui RD, et al. (2001) Anterior cingulate activity as a predictor of degree of treatment response in major depression: evidence from brain electrical tomography analysis. Am J Psychiatry 158(3):405–415

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pogarell O, Mulert C, et al. (2007) Event-related potentials in psychiatry. Clin EEG Neurosci 38(1):25–34

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Polich J, Squire LR (1993) P300 from amnesic patients with bilateral hippocampal lesions. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 86(6):408–417

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Posner MI (2005) Timing the brain: mental chronometry as a tool in neuroscience. PLoS Biol 3(2):e51

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rinne T, Alho K, et al. (2000) Separate time behaviors of the temporal and frontal mismatch negativity sources. Neuroimage 12(1):14–19

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rosburg T, Trautner P, et al. (2007) Hippocampal event-related potentials to tone duration deviance in a passive oddball paradigm in humans. Neuroimage 37(1):274–281

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rosburg T, Trautner P, et al. (2005) Subdural recordings of the mismatch negativity (MMN) in patients with focal epilepsy. Brain 128(pt 4):819–828

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sagiv N, Bentin S (2001) Structural encoding of human and schematic faces: holistic and part-based processes. J Cogn Neurosci 13(7):937–951

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Salisbury DF, Shenton ME, et al. (1998) First-episode schizophrenic psychosis differs from ­first-episode affective psychosis and controls in P300 amplitude over left temporal lobe ­[published erratum appears in Arch Gen Psychiatry 1998;55(5):413]. Arch Gen Psychiatry 55(2):173–180

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Scherg M, Bast T, et al. (1999) Multiple source analysis of interictal spikes: goals, requirements, and clinical value. J Clin Neurophysiol 16(3):214–224

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Scherg M, Berg P (1991) Use of prior knowledge in brain electromagnetic source analysis. Brain Topogr 4(2):143–150

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Scherg M, von Cramon D (1986) Evoked dipole source potentials of the human auditory cortex. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 65(5):344–360

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Scherg M, von Cramon D (1985) Two bilateral sources of the late AEP as identified by a spatio-temporal dipole model. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 62(1):32–44

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider M (1974) Effect of inhomogeneities on surface signals coming from a cerebral current-dipole source. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 21(1):52–54

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider MR (1972) A multistage process for computing virtual dipolar sources of EEG discharges from surface information. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 19(1):1–12

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sencaj RW, Aunon JI (1982) Dipole localization of average and single visual evoked potentials. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 29(1):26–33

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Steriade M (1994) Sleep oscillations and their blockage by activating systems. J Psychiatry Neurosci 19(5):354–358

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Strik WK, Dierks T, et al. (1993a) Differences in P300 amplitudes and topography between cycloid psychosis and schizophrenia in Leonhard’s classification. Acta Psychiatr Scand 87(3):179–183

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Strik WK, Fallgatter AJ, et al. (1997) Specific P300 features in patients with cycloid psychosis. Acta Psychiatr Scand 95(1):67–72

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Strik WK, Dierks T, et al. (1993b) Amplitudes of auditory P300 in remitted and residual schizophrenics: correlations with clinical features. Neuropsychobiology 27(1):54–60

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sutton S (1969) The specification of psychological variables in an average evoked potential experiment. In: Donchin E, Lindsley DB (eds) Average evoked potentials. Methods, results and evaluations (NASA SP-191). Columbia University Press, New York, pp 237–262

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Sutton S, Braren M, et al. (1965) Evoked-potential correlates of stimulus uncertainty. Science 150(700):1187–1188

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor MJ, Batty M, et al. (2004) The faces of development: a review of early face processing over childhood. J Cogn Neurosci 16(8):1426–1442

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Trujillo-Barreto NJ, Aubert-Vazquez E, et al. (2008) Bayesian M/EEG source reconstruction with spatio-temporal priors. Neuroimage 39(1):318–335

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ventouras EM, Alevizos I, et al. (2007) Independent components of sleep spindles. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 1:4002–4005

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner M, Fuchs M, et al. (2004) Evaluation of sLORETA in the presence of noise and multiple sources. Brain Topogr 16(4):277–280

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Walter WG, Cooper R, et al. (1964) Contingent negative variation: an electric sign of sensorimotor association and expectancy in the human brain. Nature 203:380–384

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang JZ, Williamson SJ, et al. (1992) Magnetic source images determined by a lead-field analysis: the unique minimum-norm least-squares estimation. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 39(7):665–675

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wright MJ, Hansell NK, et al. (2001) Genetic influence on the variance in P3 amplitude and latency. Behav Genet 31(6):555–565

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Functional Brain Imaging Branch, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, LMU Munich, Nussbaumstrasse 7, 80336, Munich, Germany

    Christoph Mulert

Authors
  1. Christoph Mulert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christoph Mulert .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Psychiatrische Klinik, Universitätsklinikum München, Nußbaumstr. 7, München, 80336, Germany

    Christoph Mulert

  2. Inst. Neurology, University College London, Queen Square, London, WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom

    Louis Lemieux

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Mulert, C. (2009). What Can fMRI Add to the ERP Story?. In: Mulert, C., Lemieux, L. (eds) EEG - fMRI. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-87919-0_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-87919-0_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-87918-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-87919-0

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation