When we are presented with a stimulus, what actually happens in our brain? With the study of Event Related Potentials (ERPs) we hope to learn about what occurs from a time course perspective, by measuring changes in electrical activity at the scalp level.
The term ERP was first used in 1969 as a way to “designate the general class of potentials that display stable time relationships to a definable reference event” (Vaughn, 1969). Much has been learned about this technique since then and it continues to be an exciting and growing field of research. Some have referred to ERPs as the new response time (RT) measure due to the fine level of timing allowed and our ability to record results for both monitored and non-monitored stimuli.
