Keywords

Event-related potentials (ERPs), Amplitude, Latency, Statistical extraction, Measurement, Simulation

Abstract

There is considerable variability in the quantification of event-related potential (ERP) amplitudes and latencies. Weexamined susceptibility of ERP quantification measures to incremental increases in background noise through publishedERP data and simulations. Measures included mean amplitude, adaptive mean, peak amplitude, peak latency, andcentroid latency. Results indicated mean amplitude was the most robust against increases in background noise. Theadaptive mean measure was more biased, but represented an efficient estimator of the true ERP signal particularly forindividual-subject latency variability. Strong evidence is provided against using peak amplitude. For latency measures,the peak latency measure was less biased and less efficient than the centroid latency measurement. Results emphasize theprudence in reporting the number of trials retained for averaging as well as noise estimates for groups and conditionswhen comparing ERPs.

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2012

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/8791

Publisher

2012 Society for Psychophysiological Research

Language

English

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Psychology

Included in

Psychology Commons

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