The Use of Event-Related Potentials to Study the Development and Decline of Cognitive Function

The event-related potential (ERP) technique is one of the most widely used methods for studying neural activity linked to perceptual, motor, and cognitive processes across the lifespan. It is currently the most practical method for studying developmental changes in brain activity in individuals who are not readily tested using other brain imaging techniques such as fMRI. With the recent availability of easy-to-use packaged ERP systems, many cognitive scientists who do not have significant training in electrophysiology are setting up ERP labs. This tutorial is designed to discuss some of the common pitfalls new ERP researchers encounter when collecting, analyzing, and interpreting ERPs, with a special emphasis on issues that arise when studying developmental and adult populations. The tutorial is an introduction to the ERP technique for beginning and intermediate level ERP researchers and consumers at any stage in their career. The goals of the tutorial are to discuss the appropriate uses of ERPs in the study of cognition across lifespan development and introduce some of the most common problems that need to be recognized and avoided in ERP research. The format of the tutorial will be a series of lectures and discussions on issues pertaining to developmental and adult ERP studies. The tutorial will provide practical advice about designing and interpreting ERP experiments. We will explain the benefits and limitations of some common practices in ERP research