Editing Event-related potential (section)

{{Short description|Brain response that is the direct result of a specific sensory, cognitive, or motor event}}
{{See also|Evoked potential}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=January 2009}}
[[File:ComponentsofERP.svg|right|thumb|A waveform showing several ERP components, including the [[N100 (neuroscience)|N100]] (labeled N1) and [[P300 (neuroscience)|P300]] (labeled P3). The ERP is plotted with negative voltages upward, a common, but not universal, practice in ERP research]]
An '''event-related potential''' ('''ERP''') is the measured [[brain]] response that is the direct result of a specific [[sense|sensory]], [[cognition|cognitive]], or [[motor system|motor]] event.<ref name="Luck">{{Cite book | vauthors = Luck SJ | title = An Introduction to the Event-Related Potential Technique | publisher = The MIT Press | year = 2005 | isbn =978-0-262-12277-1 }}{{page needed|date=April 2019}}</ref> More formally, it is any stereotyped [[electrophysiology|electrophysiological]] response to a stimulus. The study of the brain in this way provides a [[Invasiveness of surgical procedures|noninvasive]] means of evaluating brain functioning.

ERPs are measured by means of [[electroencephalography]] (EEG). The [[magnetoencephalography]] (MEG) equivalent of ERP is the ERF, or event-related field.<ref>{{cite book | veditors = Brown CM, Hagoort P | vauthors = Brown CM, Hagoort P | chapter=The cognitive neuroscience of language | title=The Neurocognition of Language | year=1999 | publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] | location=New York | page=6}}</ref> [[Evoked potential]]s and [[induced potential]]s are subtypes of ERPs.