Clinical Applications of Event-related Potentials

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The event-related potentials are difined as the changes in voltage that occur at paticular time before, during and after something that happens in the physical world or some psychological processes. The possibilities of clinical applications of ERP are considered because the endogenous potentials such as P3 and contingent negative variation(CNV) are determined by the psychological significance of the stimulus. The P3 is a positive wave that occurs when a subject detects an informative task-relevant stimulus. The P3 amplitude and latency are affected by the various factors as subjective probabilites, stimulus meaning and information transmission. It is suggested that P3 wave is associated with the decision making, cognitive or perceptual closure, memory updating and transfer of information to consciousness etc. Although the intracerebral origin of the P3 wave is not known, the P3 may have multiple intracerebral generators. The CNV is a slow potential shift occuring during the foreperiod, between warning and response signals, in a reaction time experiment. It is related to expectancy, preparation etc. The abnormal findings of P3 wave and CNV in various psychiatric disorders are also discussed.