Summary
Understanding the timing of mental acts is one of the prominent questions in information processing research. The analysis of event related potentials (ERP) with their high temporal resolution might make access to cognition related brain activity possible. We consider three major problems which make the application of ERPs questionable and then propose some solutions to these problems. The primary problem concerns the separation of the ERPs from the background EEG which is not related to the stimulus. The most common method used is averaging. We argue that this is not the most appropriate method and suggest an alternative for estimating the signal in single-trial recordings. Artifacts present a second problem. We will first review established methods of dealing with eye-movement artifacts and then propose an alternative. We will also report on current work on the parametrisation of single-trial signal estimates, which constitute the third problem considered.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Berg P, Scherg M (1993) A multiple source approach to the correction of eye-artifacts. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 90: 229–241
Brandeis D, Naylor H, Halliday R, Callaway E, Yano L (1992) Scopolamine effects on visual information processing, attention, and event-related potential map latencies. Psychophysiology 29: 315–336
Brockwell P, Davis R (1987) Time series: theory and methods. Springer, New York
Brunia Chm, Möcks J, Berg-Lensen MMC van den (1989) Correcting ocular artifacts in the EEG: a comparison of several methods. J Psychophysiol 3: 1–50
Cerutti S, Basselli G, Liberati D, Pavesi G (1987a) Single sweep analysis of visual evoked potentials through a model of parametric identification. Biol Cybern 56: 111–120
Cerutti S, Bersani V, Carrara A, Liberati D (1987b) Analysis of visual evoked potentials through Wiener filtering applied to a small number of sweeps. J Biomed Eng 9: 3–12
Chase W, McCarthy G, Squires K, Schvaneveldt R (1984) Mental chronometry. In: Donchin E (ed) Cognitive psychophysiology. Hillsdale, Erlbaum, pp 249–302
Chiarenza GA, Cerutti S, Liberati D, Mascelani P, Pavesi G (1987) Autoregressive-ex-ogenous filters for single-trial analysis of movement-related brain makropotentials in children. In: Johnson Jr R, Rohrbaugh JW, Parasuraman R (eds) Current trends in event-related potential research. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol [Suppl 40]: 8–12
Cooper R, Osselton JW, Shaw JC (1980) EEG technology. Butterworth, London
Dawson GD (1954) A summation technique for the detection of small evoked potentials. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 6: 65–84
Doyle DJ (1975) Some comments on the use of Wiener filtering in the estimation of evoked potentials. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 38: 533–534
Duffy FH, Bartels PH, Burchfield JL (1981) Significance probability mapping: an aid in the topographic analysis of brain electrical activity. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 51: 455–462
Duncan-Johnson CC, Donchin E (1979) The time constant in P300 recording. Psychophysiology 16: 53–55
Efron B (1992) Introduction to: estimators with quadratic loss. In: Kotz S, Johnson NL (eds) Breakthroughs in statistics 1. Springer, New York, pp 437–442
Efron B, Morris C (1977) Stem's paradox in statistics. Sci Am 236: 119–127
Farwell LA, Martinerie JM, Bashore TR, Rapp PE, Goddard PH (1993) Optimal digital filters for long-latency components of the event-related brain potential. Psychophysiology 30: 306–315
Faux SF, Torello MW, McCarley RW, Shenton ME, Duffy FH (1988) P300 in schizophrenia: confirmation and statistical validation of temporal region deficit in P300 topography. Biol Psychiatry 23: 776–790
Faux SF, McCarley RW, Nestor PG, Shenton ME, Pollak SD, Penhune V, Mondrow E, Marcy B, Peterson A, Horvath T, Davis KL (1993) P300 topographic asymmetries are present in unmedicated schizophrenics. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 88: 32–41
Fricke R, Treinis G (1984) Einführung in die Metaanalyse. Huber, Bern
Gasser TH, Sroka L, Möcks J (1986) The correction of EOG artifact by frequency dependent and independent methods. Psychophysiology 23: 704–712
Glass GV (1976) Primary, secondary and meta-analysis of research. Educational Researcher 5 (10): 3–8
Glass GV (1978) In defense of generalization. Behav Brain Sci 1: 394–395
Glass GV, McGaw B, Smith ML (1981) Meta-analysis in social research. Sage, Beverly Hills
Gratton G, Coles MHG, Donchin E (1983) A new method for off-line removal of ocular artifact. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 55: 468–484
Härdle W (1989) Applied nonparametric regression. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Hedges LV (1982) Estimation of effect size from a series of independent experiments. Psychol Bull 92: 490–499
Heinze HJ, Künkel H (1984) ARMA-filtering of evoked potentials. Meth Inform Med 23: 29–36
Heinze HJ, Künkel H, Scholz M (1988) Iterative estimation of single evoked potentials. In: Basar E (ed) Dynamics of sensory and cognitive processing of the brain. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York Tokyo, pp 321–332 (Springer series in brain dynamics 1)
Hillyard SA, Munte TF, Neville HJ (1985) Visual-spatial attention, orienting, and brain physiology. In: Posner MI, Marin OSM (eds) Attention and performance XI. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, pp 63–84
Hockley WE (1984) Analysis of response time distributions in the study of cognitive processes. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 10: 598–615
James W, Stein CM (1961) Estimation with quadratic loss. Proc 4th Berkely Symp Math Statist Prob 1. University of California Press, pp 311–319
Johnson R Jr. Donchin E (1985) Second thoughts: multiple P300s elicited by a single stimulus. Psychophysiology 22: 182–194
Kenemanns JL, Molenar PCM, Verbaten MN, Slangen JL (1991) Removal of the ocular artifact from the EEG: a comparison of time and frequency domain methods with simulated and real data. Psychophysiology 28: 114–121
Kornhuber HH, Deecke L (1965) Hirnpotentialänderungen bei Willkürbewegungen und passiven Bewegungen des Menschen. Bereitschaftspotential und reafferente Potentiale. Plügers Arch Ges Physiol 284: 1–17
Krieger S, Timmer J (1994) Single trial estimation by an iterative kernel estimator (in preparation)
Krieger S, Bertling R, Schweizer A, Tegeler J (1988) Recording automatic and controlled information processing by means of bioelectrical brain signals in normals and paranoid schizophrenics with and without neuroleptic medication. Pharmacopsychiatry 21: 331–333
Kutas M, Mc Carthy G, Donchin E (1977) Augmenting mental chronometry: the P300 as a measure of stimulus evaluation time. Science 197: 792–795
Lutzenberger W, Elbert Th, Rockstroh B, Birbaumer N (1985) Das EEG. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York Tokyo
Mc Cormack PD, Wright NM (1964) The positive skew observed in reaction time distributions. Can J Psychol/Rev Can Psychol 18: 43–51
McGillem CD, Aunon JI, Pomalaza CA (1985) Improved waveform estimation procedures for event-related potentials. IEEE Trans Biomed Engin 32: 371–379
Meyer DE, Osman AM, Irwin DE, Yantis S (1988) Modem mental chronometry. Biol Psychol 26: 3–67
Näätenen R (1990) The role of attention in auditory information processing as revealed by event-related potentials and other brain measures of cognitive function. Behav Brain Sci 13: 201–288
Nagelkerke NJD, deWeerd JPC, Strackee J (1983) Some criteria for the estimation of evoked potentials. Biol Cybern 48: 27–33
Pfurtscheller G (1991) Mapping procedures. In: Weikunat R (ed) Digital biosignal processing. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 459–480
Press WH, Teukolsky SA, Vetterling WT, Flannery BR (1992) Numerical recipes in C. Cambridge University Press, New York
Pritchard WS (1986) Cognitive event-related potential correlates of schizophrenia. Psychol Bull 100: 43–66
Rabbitt P (1988) Has the P300 been cost effective. Behav Brain Sci 11: 390–392
Regan D (1989) Human brain electrophysiology. Elsevier, New York
Renault B, Ragot R, Lesevre N, Remond A (1980) Onset and offset of brain events as indices of mental chronometry. Science 215: 1413–1415
Ritter W, Simson R, Vaughan HG Jr (1983) Event-related potential correlates of two stages of information processing in physical and semantic discrimination tasks. Psychophysiology 20: 168–179
Ritter W, Vaughan HG Jr, Simson R (1983) On relating event-related potential components to stages of information processing. In: Gaillard AWK, Ritter W (eds) Tutorials in event-related potential research: endogenous components. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 143–158
Rösler F (1982) Hirnelektrische Korrelate kognitiver Prozesse. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, New York Tokyo
Rösler F, Manzey D (1981) Principal components and VARIMAX-rotated components in event-related potential research: some remarks on their interpretation. Biol Psychol 13: 3–26
Rösier F, Heil M, Glowalla U (1993) Monitoring retrival from long term memory by slow event-related brain potentials. Psychophysiology 30: 170–182
Ruchkin DS (1988) Measurement of event-related potentials. In: Picton TW (ed) Human event-related potentials: handbook of electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology, vol 3. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp7–43
Ruchkin DS, Glaser EM (1978) Simple digital filters for examinig CNV and P300 on a single trial basis. In: Otto DA (ed) Multidisciplinary perspectives in event-related brain potential research. US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, pp 576–581
Scherg M (1982) Distortion of the middle latency auditory response produced by analog filtering. Scand Audiol 11: 57–60
Scherg M (1990) Fundamentals of dipole source potential analysis. In: Grandori F, Hoke M, Romani GL (eds) Auditory evoked magnetic fields and electrical potentials. Adv Audiol 6: 40–69
Scherg M (1993) Methoden der Quellenanalyse spontaner und evozierter Hirnstromaktivität. Z EEG-EMG 24: 49–55
Schimmel H (1967) The (+/−) reference: accuracy of estimated mean components in average response studies. Science 157: 92–94
Steeger GH, Herrmann O, Spreng M (1983) Some improvements in the measurements of variable latency acoustically evoked potentials in human EEG. IEEE Trans Biomed Engin 30: 295–303
Sutton S, Braren M, Zubin J, John ER (1965) Evoked-potentials correlates of stimulus uncertainly. Science 150: 1187–1188
Tueting P (1977) Event-related potentials, cognitive events, and information processing. In: Otto DA (ed) Multidisciplinary perspectives in event-related brain potential research. US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, pp 159–169
Verleger R (1991) The intruction to refrain from blinking affects auditory P3 and N1 amplitudes. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 69: 1–5
Walter DO (1969) A posteriori Wiener filtering of average evoked responses. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol [Suppl] 27: 61–70
Walter WG (1964) The contingent negative variation. An electrical sign of significance of association in the human brain. Science 146: 434
de Weerd JPC (1981) A posteriori time-varying filtering of averaged evoked potentials. I. Introduction and conceptual basis. Biol Cybern 41: 211–222
de Weerd JPC (1981) Fact and fancies about a posteriori Wiener filtering. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 28: 252–257
de Weerd JPC, Kap JI (1981) Spectro-temporal representations and time-varying spectra of evoked potentials. Biol Cybern 41: 101–117
de Weerd JPC, Kap JI (1981) A posteriori time-varying filtering of averaged evoked potentials. II. Mathematical and computational aspects. Biol Cybern 41: 223–234
Woestenburg JC, Verbaten MN, Slangen JL (1983) The removal of the eye-movement artifact from the EEG by regression analysis in the frequency domain. Biol Psychol 16: 127–147
Woody CD (1967) Characterisation of an adaptive filter for the analysis of variable latency neuroelectric signals. Med Biol Engin 5: 539–553
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Krieger, S., Timmer, J., Lis, S. et al. Some considerations on estimating event-related brain signals. J. Neural Transmission 99, 103–129 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01271473
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01271473