Editing Event-related potential (section)

==History==

With the discovery of the [[electroencephalogram]] (EEG) in 1924, [[Hans Berger]] revealed that one could measure the electrical activity of the human brain by placing [[electrodes]] on the scalp and amplifying the signal. Changes in voltage can then be plotted over a period of time. He observed that the voltages could be influenced by external events that stimulated the senses. The EEG proved to be a useful source in recording brain activity over the ensuing decades. However, it tended to be very difficult to assess the highly specific neural process that are the focus of [[cognitive neuroscience]] because using pure EEG data made it difficult to isolate individual [[neurocognitive]] processes. Event-related potentials (ERPs) offered a more sophisticated method of extracting more specific sensory, cognitive, and motor events by using simple averaging techniques.
In 1935–1936, Pauline and [[Hallowell Davis]] recorded the first known ERPs on awake humans and their findings were published a few years later, in 1939. Due to [[World War II]] not much research was conducted in the 1940s, but research focusing on sensory issues picked back up again in the 1950s. In 1964, research by [[Grey Walter]] and colleagues began the modern era of ERP component discoveries when they reported the first cognitive ERP component, called the [[contingent negative variation]] (CNV).<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Walter WG, Cooper R, Aldridge VJ, Mccallum WC, Winter AL | title = Contingent Negative Variation: An Electric Sign of Sensori-Motor Association and Expectancy in the Human Brain | journal = Nature | volume = 203 | issue = 4943 | pages = 380–4 | date = July 1964 | pmid = 14197376 | doi = 10.1038/203380a0 | s2cid = 26808780 | bibcode = 1964Natur.203..380W }}</ref> Sutton, Braren, and Zubin (1965) made another advancement with the discovery of the P3 component.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Sutton S, Braren M, Zubin J, John ER | title = Evoked-potential correlates of stimulus uncertainty | journal = Science | volume = 150 | issue = 3700 | pages = 1187–8 | date = November 1965 | pmid = 5852977 | doi = 10.1126/science.150.3700.1187 | s2cid = 39822117 | bibcode = 1965Sci...150.1187S }}</ref> Over the next fifteen years, ERP component research became increasingly popular. The 1980s, with the introduction of inexpensive computers, opened up a new door for cognitive neuroscience research. Currently, ERP is one of the most widely used methods in [[cognitive neuroscience]] research to study the [[physiological]] correlates of [[Sensory perception|sensory]], [[perceptual]] and [[cognitive]] activity associated with processing information.<ref>Handy, T. C. (2005). Event Related Potentials: A Methods Handbook. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Bradford/[[MIT Press]].{{page needed|date=April 2019}}</ref>