Table 1A.
Overview of main event-related potentials (ERP) from studies in the current review.
| Neurocognitive domain | Prominent components | Description | Proposed functional significance | Relevant reference | Example of studies in the current review |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sensory processing | P50 | Positive-going wave over fronto-temporal electrodes peaking at 40-75 ms poststimulus | Attenuation of this component indexes sensory gating (the ability to filter out redundant sensory information) | (Potter et al., 2006) | (Magnée et al., 2009) |
| N1 (N100) | Negative-going wave over frontocentral electrodes peaking at 80-120 ms poststimulus | Sensory processing of unexpected (auditory) stimulus | (Rosburg et al., 2008) | (Gonen-Yaacovi et al., 2016; Sable et al., 2013) | |
| P1 (P100) | Positive-going wave over lateral occipital electrodes peaking at 80-130 ms poststimulus | Sensory processing of stimulus in the contralateral visual field | (Hillyard and Anllo-Vento, 1998) | (Gonen-Yaacovi et al., 2016; Sable et al., 2013) | |
| N170 | Negative-going wave over posterior electrodes peaking around 130-200 ms poststimulus (face vs non-face) | Structural encoding of faces | (Feuerriegel et al., 2015) | (O’Connor et al., 2005; Stavropoulos et al., 2016) | |
| Early posterior negativity (EPN) | Negative-going wave peaking at 150–300 ms poststimulus | Selective visual attention toward emotional stimuli | (Citron, 2012) | (Faja et al., 2016) | |
| Mismatch negativity (MMN) | Negative-going wave peaking at 150-250 ms poststimulus | Detection of infrequent and odd deviant stimulus in a repetitive sequence of auditory or visual stimuli | (Garrido et al., 2009) | (Fan and Cheng, 2014) | |
| Stimulus evaluation | N2 | Negative-going wave peaking at 200-350 ms poststimulus | Detection of mismatch and/or inhibition of competing response | (Folstein and Van Petten, 2008) | (Fisher et al., 2011; Groom et al., 2008) |
| N250 | Negative-going wave over inferior temporal electrodes around 250 ms poststimulus when comparing familiar vs unfamiliar faces | Storage of face representation in long-term memory | (Eimer and Holmes, 2007) | (Webb et al., 2010) | |
| P2 | Positive-going wave peaking at 100-250 ms poststimulus | Sensitivity to various stimulus features | (Crowley and Colrain, 2004) | (Chien et al., 2017; Megnin et al., 2012) | |
| P3a (novelty P3) | Positive-going wave over frontocentral electrodes peaking at 250-280 ms poststimulus | Novelty processing and involuntary orienting of attention | (Polich, 2007) | (Sokhadze et al., 2009b) | |
| P3b (classic P3) | Positive-going wave over parietal electrodes peaking at 250-500 ms poststimulus | Attentional engagement and stimulus evaluation/decision-making | (Polich, 2007) | (Iacono et al., 2002; Rommel et al., 2017) | |
| N3 (slow wave or late posterior negativity (LPN)) | Negative-going wave peaking at 500-650 ms poststimulus over posterior electrodes | Enhanced attention to stimulus, particularly the nonautomatic, controlled part of the stimulus processing | (Johansson and Mecklinger, 2003) | (Raz and Dan, 2015b) | |
| N400 | Negative-going wave over centropariental electrodes peaking at 250-500 ms poststimulus | Processing of semantic information | (Kutas and Federmeier, 2011) | (Gold et al., 2010; Kulakova and Nieuwland, 2016) | |
| Response preparation | CNV | Negative-going wave rising around 260-470 ms after a warning stimulus | Response and motor preparation to upcoming stimulus | (Mento, 2013) | (Boecker et al., 2014; Cheung et al., 2016) |
| Lateralised readiness potential (LRP) | Negative-going wave over motor cortices contralateral to the responding hands | Motor preparation before action execution | (Smulders and Miller, 2012) | (Gorman Bozorgpour et al., 2013) | |
| Late positive potential (LPP) | Positive-going slow wave arising around 600 ms poststimulus | Salience of emotional stimuli | (Olofsson et al., 2008) | (Althaus et al., 2015; Fan et al., 2014) | |
| Error detection | Error-related negativity (ERN) | Negative-going wave rising 50–100 ms following erroneous response execution over frontocentral electrodes | Unconscious error processing | (Nieuwenhuis et al., 2001) | (Michelini et al., 2016; O’Connell et al., 2009) |
| Error-related positivity (PE) | Positive-going wave over centro-parietal electrodes peaking around 200-500 ms post-error, after the occurrence of ERN | Conscious error processing | (Wessel, 2012) | (Michelini et al., 2016; O’Connell et al., 2009) | |
Note. ERP refers to transient time-locked EEG activity typically averaged across trials. Relevant quantitative measures include amplitude (in voltage, interpreted as engagement of a particular cognitive process) and latency (in ms, interpreted as timing of a particular cognitive process) (Kappenman and Luck, 2012).