Detecting the onset of the lateralized readiness potential: a comparison of available methods and procedures

Studies that measure the onset of the lateralized readiness potential (LRP) could well provide researchers with important new data concerning the information-processing locus of experimental effects of interest. However, detecting the onset of the LRP has proved difficult. The present study used computer simulations involving both human and artificial data, and both stimulus- and response-locked effects, to compare a wide variety of techniques for detecting and estimating differences in the onset latency of the LRP. Across the two sets of simulations, different techniques were found to be the most accurate and reliable for the analysis of stimulus- and response-locked data. On the basis of these results, it is recommended that regression-based methods be used to analyze most LRP data.