EEG — Dynamics and Evoked Potentials in Sensory and Cognitive Processing by the Brain

Abstract

One of the main concerns of brain research is to measure the brain’s electrical activity and, in this way, to try to detect the coding of behaviorally relevant information in the CNS. It is usually assumed that there is no uniform code for behaviorally relevant information in the neuronal networks that constitute the CNS. There are also no standard methods for clearly describing the functional and behavioral components of the brain’s electrical activity. Analyses of the EEG, of evoked potentials (EPs), and of endogeneous potentials (P300 family) are among the most fundamental research tools for understanding the sensory and cognitive information processing in the brain. Since Berger’s discovery of the EEG and Adrian’s measuring of cortical field potentials, these powerful techniques have been adequately described in several outstanding books (Berger 1938; Freeman 1975; Niedermeyer and Lopes da Silva 1982). The ensemble of reports in this volume shows the broad extent of applications of the EEG, of sensory EPs and event-related potentials (ERPs), and of contingent negative variation (CNV) to the understanding of CNS information processing and of behavior.