Event Related Potential

An Event Related Potential or ERP is a standardised measure of brain response to either a given thought or a given sensory feedback. It is an attempt to standardise across individuals, the signal detected when a controlled event occurs, such as a pinprick on the palm, or a subject instructed to think a given thought.

There are many different ERPs that occur at different time intervals after the sensory input or internal process has occurred. Typically the 200ms ERP is most commonly used when using ERPs as control signals for computer systems, owing to the relative strength of this signal. Ideally when using an ERP you are looking to minimise the time since the event and the signal you record, but a compromise between delay and strength of signal is inevitable when it comes to increasing accuracy of signal identification to acceptable levels.

Given the nature of biological systems, it is inevitable that the ERP for the same event will differ between individuals across something of a tolerance range. Whilst different individuals will produce similar ERP signals, and certain elements will almost always be the same, swift identification of them usually requires a neural network in the interface circuit, to make an educated guess as to what is being shown.

In theory, increasing familiarity with the brain of a given individual, would increase the accuracy of signal identification by an interface. In practice, ERP based brain machine interfaces are not yet widely enough used to provide a large enough data sample to make such a generalised observation.

In addition to use as an interface, ERP signals are increasingly being used as indicators of neural health, as each one indicates the presence of specific brain processes. In cases where brain damage has occured, they are extremely useful to take stock of exactly which systems were affected.

See Also: Brain Machine Interface, Brain Computer Interface, Neuroprosthetic, TMR, EEG, 3D EEG, ECoG, Neurogaming, Virtual Embodiment, SimStim

Below, we offer a selection of links from our resource databases which may match this term.

Event Related Potential Mismatch Negativity

MMN Neural Oscillation

SSVEP Steady-State Visually Evoked Potential

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Organized Roleplaying Events
Organising even a handful of players into a cohesive, functional group for a roleplayed event is a nightmare for any persistent world. However, if you are not running a gameworld, or alternate life world, but desire a one-shot roleplay event with whoever is in world at the time, you can. Here is how to set it up.

A Survey of Health-Related Activities on Second Life
The Journal of Medical Internet Research has published a fairly comprehensive list of the health-related initiatives in just one single social VR platform. The scope is quite impressive.

Potential Power Source for Implants and Health Concern
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White House Deputy CTO Holds Dual Reality Event
Details of the first official US Government conference to address avatars in a virtual reality on an equal footing to physically present guests.

Augmenting Virtual Environments with Physical Stats
When you are engaged in a virtual recreation of a physical event, particularly sporting events, and you think you are getting quite good. It could be a huge boost to the ego, or a crippling slap, to find yourself suddenly competing with the world's greatest in that sport, using their latest data.

Augmented Conferencing
A recent news story covered BT's attempts to wire up the conference room of the future. However, BT's spokesperson, Lesley Gavin, seemed less than clued up on use of the virtual technologies that would likely be employed. We would like to suggest our own version for how we think the conference event of the medium-term future will be held. Twenty years from now.

Resource List: E32006

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, E3, one of the most major computer-based entertainment (read: Mainstream) events in the calendar year, starts on the 10th of May 2006. Here, we track the events and announcements from the big guns, and the little guns, as the event unfolds.

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