Amplitudes and latencies of single-trial ERP's estimated by a maximum-likelihood method

The common approach in research on event-related electroencephalogram (EEG) potentials is to assume that the trigger-related signal is always the same and can be extracted from EEG background activity by simple averaging. To check the validity of this approach and to provide more exact results, latencies and amplitudes of components have to be estimated in single trials. D.T. Pham et al. (Biometrika, vol. 74, p. 525-33, 1987) applied a maximum-likelihood approach to solve the more general model which assumes that the signal hidden in EEG background activity has the same shape and amplitude but may vary in its latency from trial to trial. Extending their method the authors present a solution in which amplitude variability is also allowed. The utility of the solution to estimate the P3 component in single trials was investigated both by extensive pseudoreal simulations and in an application to real data. The simulations showed some advantage of the method over two other methods (Woody's method and peak-picking) commonly used in event-related potentials research. Application to real data provided a plausible description of single-trial sequential effects on the amplitude of the P3 component.

[1]  D G Wastell,et al.  Statistical detection of individual evoked responses: an evaluation of Woody's adaptive filter. , 1977, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[2]  J Anderson,et al.  Classification of single-trial ERP sub-types: application of globally optimal vector quantization using simulated annealing. , 1995, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[3]  P ? ? ? ? ? ? ? % ? ? ? ? , 1991 .

[4]  J Möcks,et al.  Variability of single visual evoked potentials evaluated by two new statistical tests. , 1984, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[5]  N. Squires,et al.  The effect of stimulus sequence on the waveform of the cortical event-related potential. , 1976, Science.

[6]  Rolf Verleger,et al.  Sequential effects on P3 in a counting task: A partial replication , 1987, Biological Psychology.

[7]  Daniel S. Ruchkin,et al.  Principles of Neurobiological Signal Analysis , 1976 .

[8]  Robert B. Davies,et al.  Optimal inference in the frequency domain , 1983 .

[9]  A Pfefferbaum,et al.  ERPs to stimuli requiring response production and inhibition: effects of age, probability and visual noise. , 1988, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[10]  W. Sommer,et al.  The effects of serial order in long sequences of auditory stimuli on event-related potentials. , 1981, Psychophysiology.

[11]  R. Verleger.  On the utility of P3 latency as an index of mental chronometry. , 1997, Psychophysiology.

[12]  W. Sommer,et al.  Differential effects of voluntary expectancies on reaction times and event-related potentials: evidence for automatic and controlled expectancies. , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[13]  G. G. Stokes.  "J." , 1890, The New Yale Book of Quotations.

[14]  J. Hohnsbein,et al.  Late ERP components in visual and auditory Go/Nogo tasks. , 1995, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[15]  R. Elul.  Gaussian Behavior of the Electroencephalogram: Changes during Performance of Mental Task , 1969, Science.

[16]  R Verleger,et al.  Responses to cued signals in Parkinson's disease. Distinguishing between disorders of cognition and of activation. , 1997, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[17]  R Verleger,et al.  SELAVCO: a method to deal with trial-to-trial variability of evoked potentials. , 1983, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[18]  A Kok,et al.  A comparison of different methods for estimating single-trial P300 latencies. , 1994, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[19]  A. Kramer,et al.  Task versus component consistency in the development of automatic processing: a psychophysiological assessment. , 1991, Psychophysiology.

[20]  J. L. Slangen,et al.  Single trial erp estimation in the frequency domain using orthogonal polynomial trend analysis (OPTA): Estimation of individual habituation , 1983, Biological Psychology.

[21]  D. H. Lange,et al.  Modeling and estimation of single evoked brain potential components , 1997, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[22]  R Verleger,et al.  Event-related potentials suggest slowing of brain processes in generalized epilepsy and alterations of visual processing in patients with partial seizures. , 1997, Brain research. Cognitive brain research.

[23]  J. Ford,et al.  Schizophrenics have fewer and smaller P300s: A single-trial analysis , 1994, Biological Psychiatry.

[24]  N.V. Thakor,et al.  Adaptive estimation of latency changes in evoked potentials , 1996, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[25]  Clare D. McGillem,et al.  Improved Waveform Estimation Procedures for Event-Related Potentials , 1985, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[26]  Claude Tomberg,et al.  New application of the Z estimator to identify the cognitive P300 in non-averaged human brain potentials , 1995, Neuroscience Letters.

[27]  L. Gupta,et al.  Nonlinear alignment and averaging for estimating the evoked potential , 1996, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[28]  Rory A. Fisher,et al.  Theory of Statistical Estimation , 1925, Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society.

[29]  G. Mulder.  Book review of: M.D. Rugg & M.G.H. Coles: Electrophysiology of mind. Eventrelated brain potentials and cognition , 1996 .

[30]  T. Gasser,et al.  Trial-to-trial variability of single potentials: methodological concepts and results. , 1987, The International journal of neuroscience.

[31]  R Verleger,et al.  On-line brain potential correlates of right parietal patients' attentional deficit. , 1996, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[32]  J. Raz,et al.  Estimation of trial-to-trial variation in evoked potential signals by smoothing across trials. , 1989, Psychophysiology.

[33]  R. Verleger,et al.  An evaluation of methods for single-trial estimation of P3 latency. , 2000, Psychophysiology.

[34]  G Fein,et al.  P300 latency variability in normal elderly: effects of paradigm and measurement technique. , 1989, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[35]  T. Gasser,et al.  Variable latencies of noisy signals: Estimation and testing in brain potential data , 1987 .

[36]  Aaas News,et al.  Book Reviews , 1893, Buffalo Medical and Surgical Journal.