Introduction to the Event-related Potential Technique

by Steven J. Luck

An essential guide to designing, conducting, and analyzing event-related potential (ERP) experiments, completely updated for this edition.The event-related potential (ERP) technique, in which neural responses to specific events are extracted from the EEG, provides a powerful noninvasive tool for exploring the human brain. This volume describes practical methods for ERP research along with the underlying theoretical rationale. It offers researchers and students an essential guide to designing, conducting, and analyzing ERP experiments. This second edition has been completely updated, with additional material, new chapters, and more accessible explanations. Freely available supplementary material, including several online-only chapters, offer expanded or advanced treatment of selected topics.

The first half of the book presents essential background information, describing the origins of ERPs, the nature of ERP components, and the design of ERP experiments. The second half of the book offers a detailed treatment of the main steps involved in conducting ERP experiments, covering such topics as recording the EEG, filtering the EEG and ERP waveforms, and quantifying amplitudes and latencies. Throughout, the emphasis is on rigorous experimental design and relatively simple analyses. New material in the second edition includes entire chapters devoted to components, artifacts, measuring amplitudes and latencies, and statistical analysis; updated coverage of recording technologies; concrete examples of experimental design; and many more figures. Online chapters cover such topics as overlap, localization, writing and reviewing ERP papers, and setting up and running an ERP lab.

Genres: Neuroscience, Science, Psychology, Nonfiction, Reference, Technical, Academic

374 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Clara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Luck is the master carpenter of ERP research, a status secured in part because of this book. It reads like a bedtime story without losing didactic power and includes many helpful diagrams and illustrations. My biggest frustration with the text is that it sometimes lacks citations where I'd like to follow up with a more detailed text. For example, the (mostly excellent) chapter on filtering states that precision in the time domain is inversely related to precision in the frequency domain and gives anecdotal illustrations of this fact; but the mathematical relationship is not described or cited, and I want to see proofs in addition to examples.

[Victoria Mery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glad it's done but helpful

[Alien Bookreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn’t read this whole book, but from what I’ve read and skimmed through I can say it is very comprehensive.

[Sophia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is exactly what the title of the book says it is. I would recommend it to bachelor and master psychology students who are given their first datasets to analyze. It explains the basic principles behind ERPs, as well as pitfalls to avoid, and techniques to apply to improve your analysis. There's almost no math or practical step by step guide in the text, but this you can get elsewhere.

[Phoebe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is quite out of date technologically - I didn’t buy the most recent edition because textbooks are insanely expensive. However, it did a great job at explaining ERPs for me, someone who hasn’t done biology or physics in 6 years. Would recommend to anyone on a neuroscience course studying electrophysiology or considering using ERPs for research.

[Silke De Smet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stomme thesis

[Yates Buckley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good book introducing the rather odd brain phenomena of the ERP. The book is mostly accessible to anyone with a basic science background and sets a useful basis for this rather strange mechanism and technique.

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

sehr guter Einstieg in ERP-Experimente und auch für erfahrene Experimenter immer wieder gut zur Auffrischung.

[Scott Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful, although this book is overdue for an updated edition. I will refer back to it in the future, I am sure.

[Çağlayan Taybaş · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is full of information enough to learn almost everything about EEG from beginning but it is a little confusing and much detailed.

[Resbecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

not actually a self-help book ;)