ERPs and the Dynamics of Adaptive Attentional Control in the Prefrontal Cortex

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Brain electrical activity as measured at the scalp has been a staple of research on cognitive and emotional information processing using two strategies: one uses ongoing brainwave patterns in the EEG and the other uses EEG segments, known as event-related potentials, that are time-locked to repeated important mental events such as the perception of a stimulus. In both cases, one needs to average over many trials to find the associated consistent patterns, resulting in two serious limitations of these traditional methods: (1) since the scalp EEG represents a mixture of signals from various cortical networks, it is difficult to be specific about the relationship between the activity measured at the scalp and the neural function of interest; and (2) there is no information available concerning the dynamic relations between these neural functions across regions of the cortex. We now have ways to address both these limitations and make them practical for both the research lab and the clinic. We propose that these measures have promise of being more sensitive than standard assessment measures used in either setting.** Our research questions involve processes associated with two specific brain regions - the frontal cortex that is central for adapting one's behaviour to changed or unexpected circumstances, and the visual cortex while processing complex stimuli such as human faces. We have demonstrated relations between these brain regions and personality, brain development, and specifics of visual information processing, all using standard measures despite the limitations indicated above. However, we are now applying procedures for mapping the dynamic relations between frontal lobe tissue and the visual cortex, which we think account for how social and cognitive factors influence early visual perceptual processes. We will also apply these techniques in clinical settings to capture cognitive functioning in neurological conditions where other measures have less success, such as in very early stages of dementia, post-concussive syndrome, and the assessment of cognitive activity in individuals with minimal levels of consciousness.**