Conducting Event-Related Potential (ERP) Research with Young Children: A Review of Components, Special Considerations
Rebecca J Brooker1, John E Bates2, Kristin A Buss3
1Texas A&M University.
Insights
This study addresses the unique methodological needs for event-related potential (ERP) research in young children. It provides practical guidelines for researchers to improve the quality and validity of developmental neuroscience studies.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Neuroscience
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Child Psychology
Background:
- Increasing use of event-related potential (ERP) techniques in child research.
- Lack of specific methodological guidelines for studying young children (toddlers and preschoolers) compared to adults.
- Existing adult-focused methods create unrealistic expectations and hinder scientific advancement in developmental studies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To summarize common ERP components studied in young children.
- To present realistic expectations and guidelines for data collection, processing, and analysis in developmental ERP research.
- To aid researchers, reviewers, and editors in designing and evaluating ERP studies in children aged 2-12.
Main Methods:
- Compilation of ERP data from 10 North American laboratories.
- Analysis of common ERP components related to emotion and cognition in young children.
- Development of 13 practical recommendations based on cumulative experience and data.
Main Results:
- Identification of key ERP components relevant to child development.
- Outline of 13 realistic expectations covering data collection, laboratory procedures, paradigms, data processing, and averaging.
- Highlighting common challenges encountered in pediatric ERP research.
Conclusions:
- Standard adult ERP protocols are often inappropriate for young children.
- Specific, developmentally-tailored guidelines are crucial for robust child ERP research.
- Recommendations aim to improve the design, execution, and interpretation of developmental ERP studies.
Abstract:
There has been an unprecedented increase in the number of research studies employing event-related potential (ERP) techniques to examine dynamic and rapidly-occurring neural processes with children during the preschool and early childhood years. Despite this, there has been little discussion of the methodological and procedural differences that exist for studies of young children versus older children and adults. That is, reviewers, editors, and consumers of this work often expect developmental studies to simply apply adult techniques and procedures to younger samples. Procedurally, this creates unrealistic expectations for research paradigms, data collection, and data reduction and analyses. Scientifically, this leads to inappropriate measures and methods that hinder drawing conclusions and advancing theory. Based on ERP work with preschoolers and young children from 10 laboratories across North America, we present a summary of the most common ERP components under study in the area of emotion and cognition in young children along with 13 realistic expectations for data collection and loss, laboratory procedures and paradigms, data processing, ERP averaging, and typical challenges for conducting this type of work. This work is intended to supplement previous guidelines for work with adults and offer insights to aid researchers, reviewers, and editors in the design and evaluation of developmental research using ERPs. Here we make recommendations for researchers who plan to conduct or who are conducting ERP studies in children between ages 2 and 12, focusing on studies of toddlers and preschoolers. Recommendations are based on both data and our cumulative experience and include guidelines for laboratory setup, equipment and recording settings, task design, and data processing.
