Component enhancement through temporal compression and expansion of event-related potentials

A technique is described in which wave forms are temporally compressed or expanded to provide optimal correlation with a superaveraged template. In certain instances, this filter can be applied more appropriately than other filters which shift or rotate wave forms. A 2-part experiment was carried out in which the efficacy of the filter was evaluated for responses of (a) moderate size and consistent latency, and (b) small amplitude and variable latency. The filter was effective in enhancing data for the small, variable responses while it had no significant effect on more consistent data. Possible functional interpretations of latency adjustment techniques are presented.