Event-Related Brain Potentials in the Study of Consciousness

The electrical activity of the brain has always tantalized investigators interested in developing a psychobiology of consciousness. Hans Berger had been driven to his pioneering studies of the human electroencephalogram (EEG) by his interest in “psychic energy.” Jung (1975) reported that Berger “believed that the chemical energy of brain metabolism was transported into heat, electrical and ‘psychic’ energy, and he hoped to extrapolate the latter by measuring the heat production and electrical activity of the brain” (p. 484). The EEG, which Berger discovered, promised to allow insights into the mechanisms underlying consciousness. The rationale for this promise is evident. Because the phenomena of consciousness make themselves most readily available in the human, consciousness is best studied in the awake, alert, speaking individual. As electrical brain activity is one of the few means available for the observation of neural activity in the intact human, it is a natural object of interest to the student of consciousness.

[1]  E. John,et al.  The neurophysiology of information processing and cognition. , 1978, Annual review of psychology.

[2]  R. Hernández-Peón,et al.  Modification of electric activity in cochlear nucleus during attention in unanesthetized cats. , 1956, Science.

[3]  W. Walter,et al.  Contingent Negative Variation : An Electric Sign of Sensori-Motor Association and Expectancy in the Human Brain , 1964, Nature.

[4]  E. Donchin,et al.  COGNITIVE PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY: THE ENDOGENOUS COMPONENTS OF THE ERP , 1978 .

[5]  J. T. Marsh,et al.  Evoked potential waveform differences produced by the perception of different meanings of an ambiguous phrase. , 1976, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[6]  M. Cole,et al.  A handbook of contemporary Soviet psychology , 1969 .

[7]  E R John,et al.  Switchboard versus statistical theories of learning and memory. , 1972, Science.

[8]  E. John,et al.  Evoked-Potential Correlates of Stimulus Uncertainty , 1965, Science.

[9]  G. McCarthy,et al.  Brain potentials associated with structural and functional visual matching , 1978, Neuropsychologia.

[10]  T. Allison,et al.  Somato-sensory evoked responses in patients with unilateral cerebral lesions. , 1970, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[11]  E. Boring.  A History of Experimental Psychology. , 1930 .

[12]  G. McCarthy,et al.  Augmenting mental chronometry: the P300 as a measure of stimulus evaluation time. , 1977, Science.

[13]  D. Regan.  Evoked Potentials in Psychology, Sensory Physiology and Clinical Medicine , 1972 .

[14]  G. McCarthy,et al.  Event-Related Brain Potentials — Manifestations of Cognitive Activity , 1979 .

[15]  REPRESSIVENESS AS A FACTOR IN THE SUBLIMINAL ACTIVATION OF BRAIN AND VERBAL RESPONSES , 1969, Psychiatry digest.

[16]  John N. Walton,et al.  Neurophysiology studied in man , 1974 .

[17]  W. B. Matthews.  Motivation, motor and sensory processes of the brain: electrical potentials, behaviour and clinical use. Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium Ulm-Reisensburg. May 14-18, 1979. , 1982, Progress in brain research.

[18]  W. Brown,et al.  Letter: Electrophysiological correlates of meaning: vocalization artifact , 1975, Science.

[19]  Edward Bradford Titchener.  The Problems of Experimental Psychology , 1905 .

[20]  Emanuel Donchin,et al.  Brain Electrical Correlates of Pattern Recognition , 1975 .

[21]  Steven A. Hillyard,et al.  Cortical potentials evoked by confirming and disconfirming feedback following an auditory discrimination , 1973 .

[22]  T. Picton,et al.  Evoked potential audiometry. , 1976, The Journal of otolaryngology.

[23]  D Friedman,et al.  A brain event related to the making of a sensory discrimination. , 1979, Science.

[24]  E R John,et al.  Information Delivery and the Sensory Evoked Potential , 1967, Science.

[25]  S. Hillyard,et al.  Electrical Signs of Selective Attention in the Human Brain , 1973, Science.

[26]  H. Begleiter,et al.  The effects of stimulus expectancy on evoked brain potentials. , 1975, Psychophysiology.

[27]  W. Ritter,et al.  Cortical evoked potentials elicited by real speech words and human sounds. , 1975, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[28]  B. Renault,et al.  Correct and incorrect responses in a choice reaction time task and the endogenous components of the evoked potential. , 1980, Progress in brain research.

[29]  W. Ritter,et al.  The scalp topography of potentials in auditory and visual discrimination tasks. , 1977, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[30]  P. H. Lindsay,et al.  Evoked Potential Correlates of Auditory Signal Detection , 1971, Science.

[31]  D. Lindsley,et al.  Attention, Vigilance, and Cortical Evoked-Potentials in Humans , 1964, Science.

[32]  Retinal versus central processes in determining averaged evoked response waveforms , 1976, Physiology & Behavior.

[33]  K. Pribram,et al.  Arousal, activation, and effort in the control of attention. , 1975, Psychological review.

[34]  J. Desmedt,et al.  Cognitive components in cerebral event-related potentials and selective attention , 1979 .

[35]  S. Sutton,et al.  The specification of psychological variables in an average evoked potential experiment. , 1969 .

[36]  H G Vaughan,et al.  Averaged Evoked Responses in Vigilance and Discrimination: A Reassessment , 1969, Science.

[37]  E Donchin,et al.  A metric for thought: a comparison of P300 latency and reaction time. , 1981, Science.

[38]  R. Doty,et al.  Lateralization in the nervous system , 1977 .

[39]  Effects of Stimulus Shape on Visual Evoked Potentials , 1978, Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences / Journal Canadien des Sciences Neurologiques.

[40]  S. Sutton,et al.  Evoked Potential Correlates of Response Criterion in Auditory Signal Detection , 1972, Science.

[41]  N. Squires,et al.  Vertex evoked potentials in a rating-scale detection task: relation to signal probability. , 1975, Behavioral biology.

[42]  E R John,et al.  Effects of Visual Form on the Evoked Response , 1967, Science.

[43]  M. Kinsbourne.  Chapter VII – Cognition and the Brain , 1980 .

[44]  D. Lindsley,et al.  Chapter 1 – The Electroencephalogram: Autonomous Electrical Activity in Man and Animals , 1974 .

[45]  M. Sanders.  Handbook of Sensory Physiology , 1975 .

[46]  Evoked responses and perception: stimulus content versus stimulus structure. , 1971, Psychophysiology.

[47]  R. Thatcher.  22 – Evoked-Potential Correlates of Hemispheric Lateralization During Semantic Information-Processing , 1977 .

[48]  J. R. Hughes.  Multidisciplinary perspectives in event-related brain potential research , 1980 .

[49]  Daniel S. Ruchkin,et al.  N250 latency and decision time , 1980 .

[50]  B. Libet,et al.  Cortical Activation in Conscious and Unconscious Experience , 2015, Perspectives in biology and medicine.

[51]  H. Begleiter,et al.  Electrophysiological changes during stimulus generalization , 1971 .

[52]  Emanuel Donchin,et al.  Average evoked potentials - Methods, results, and evaluations , 1969 .

[53]  C. Shagass,et al.  Physiological Limits for "Subliminal" Perception , 1961, Science.

[54]  E. Roy John,et al.  Mechanisms of memory , 1967 .

[55]  Raymond Earle Johnson.  Electrophysiological Manifestations of Decision Making in a Changing Environment , 1979 .

[56]  H Begleiter,et al.  Evoked Potentials: Modifications by Classical Conditioning , 1969, Science.

[57]  C. Shagass,et al.  Evoked cortical potentials and sensation in man. , 1961, Journal of neuropsychiatry.

[58]  A. Iggo,et al.  Somatosensory System , 1973 .

[59]  N. Squires,et al.  Two varieties of long-latency positive waves evoked by unpredictable auditory stimuli in man. , 1975, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[60]  H. Begleiter,et al.  Evoked Potential Correlates of Expected Stimulus Intensity , 1973, Science.

[61]  E. Donchin.  Event-related Brain Potentials: A Tool in the Study of Human Information Processing , 1979 .

[62]  T W Picton,et al.  Neurophysiological correlates of human concept formation. , 1978, Behavioral biology.

[63]  S Sutton,et al.  Quantitative evoked potential correlates of the probability of events. , 1970, Psychophysiology.

[64]  Henri Begleiter,et al.  Evoked Brain Potentials and Behavior , 1979, The Downstate Series of Research in Psychiatry and Psychology.

[65]  B. Libet,et al.  Responses of Human Somatosensory Cortex to Stimuli below Threshold for Conscious Sensation , 1967, Science.

[66]  Dissociation of sensation and evoked responses by a general anesthetic in man. , 1969, Journal of comparative and physiological psychology.

[67]  Richard F. Thompson,et al.  Human scalp-recorded evoked-potential correlates of linguistic stimuli , 1973 .

[68]  T. Allison,et al.  THE FUNCTIONAL NEUROANATOMY OF EVENT RELATED POTENTIALS , 1978 .

[69]  Dietrich Lehmann,et al.  Human Evoked Potentials , 1979 .

[70]  S. Hillyard.  SENSATION, PERCEPTION AND ATTENTION: ANALYSIS USING ERPs , 1978 .

[71]  Bryan Rodgers,et al.  What does a Man do after he Makes an Error? An Analysis of Response Programming , 1977 .

[72]  S. Sutton,et al.  Evoked potential correlates of psychophysical judgments: the threshold problem. A new reply to Clark, Butler, and Rosner. , 1973, Behavioral biology.

[73]  Elizabeth C. Hirschman,et al.  Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases , 1974, Science.

[74]  P. Tueting,et al.  Event-related brain potentials in man , 1978 .

[75]  Emanuel Donchin,et al.  The effect of handedness, the responding hand, and response force on the contralateral dominance of the readiness potential , 1977 .

[76]  Richard F. Thompson,et al.  Electroencephalography and human brain potentials , 1974 .

[77]  W. Ritter,et al.  The scalp topography of potentials associated with missing visual or auditory stimuli. , 1976, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[78]  E. Donchin,et al.  On quantifying surprise: the variation of event-related potentials with subjective probability. , 1977, Psychophysiology.

[79]  E Donchin,et al.  P300 and stimulus categorization: two plus one is not so different from one plus one. , 1980, Psychophysiology.

[80]  J. Desmedt.  Attention, Voluntary Contraction and Event-Related Cerebral Potentials , 1977 .

[81]  V S Johnston,et al.  Electrophysiological Correlates of Meaning , 1974, Science.

[82]  E. Donchin,et al.  The "Psychological Significance" of Evoked Responses: a Comment on Clark, Butler, & Rosner , 1970 .

[83]  S. Matsuoka,et al.  Simultaneous Recordings of Scalp and Epidural Somatosensory-Evoked Responses in Man , 1964, Science.

[84]  John Cohen,et al.  Psychological Probability, Or, The Art Of Doubt , 1972 .

[85]  R. Näätänen,et al.  Magnitude of stimulus deviance and brain potentials. , 1980, Progress in brain research.

[86]  F. Plum.  Handbook of Physiology. , 1960 .

[87]  B S Kopell,et al.  Effects of stimulus probability and task-relevance on event-related potentials. , 1976, Psychophysiology.

[88]  E Donchin,et al.  On how P300 amplitude varies with the utility of the eliciting stimuli. , 1978, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[89]  J. Eccles.  Brain and Conscious Experience , 1965 .

[90]  D. M. Green,et al.  Signal detection theory and psychophysics , 1966 .

[91]  K. Squires,et al.  An early event-related cortical potential. , 1978, Psychophysiology.

[92]  J. T. Marsh,et al.  Contextual meaning effects on speech-evoked potentials. , 1973, Behavioral biology.

[93]  H. Shevrin,et al.  Visual Evoked Response Correlates of Unconscious Mental Processes , 1968, Science.

[94]  L. Heller,et al.  THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF WORDS. , 1964, Psychoanalytic review.

[95]  Evoked brain potentials as indicators of decision-making , 1975, Science.

[96]  E. W. Wright,et al.  PRODUCTION OF THRESHOLD LEVELS OF CONSCIOUS SENSATION BY ELECTRICAL STIMULATION OF HUMAN SOMATOSENSORY CORTEX , 1964 .

[97]  Herbert G. Vaughan,et al.  Chapter 4 – The Analysis of Scalp-Recorded Brain Potentials , 1974 .

[98]  Steven A. Hillyard,et al.  The effect of stimulus deviation on P3 waves to easily recognized stimuli , 1978, Neuropsychologia.