Paradigms for recording cognitive brain electrical activity

Human event-related potentials reflect cognitive processing, and are normally elicited by external events, such as acoustic sounds or visual stimuli. As such they provide an opportunity to study normal and abnormal brain function noninvasively, at sub-second resolution. Advances in multimedia technology permit specialists in informatics and neuropsychology to co-operate in the design and implementation of paradigms, which influence ERP components. The paper illustrates the progression from standard paradigms such as the auditory oddball, which can be used to study memory update through to contingent negative variation and three condition, visual paradigms which can be used to study cognitive and emotional responses. Data from a study investigating the comparative processing of target pictures and words illustrate how external stimuli influence the later cognitive potentials.