Event-Related Potentials in Search of the Mystery of the Human Brain: Some Perspectives for the Research of the Mind

Abstract

The present article suggests a classification of the event-related brain-potential components which can be recorded from the human scalp in response to a sensory stimulus. This response is composed of (1) exogenous sensory specific; (2) dynamogenic (reflecting nonspecific activational effects);and (3) “psychological” ERP components. Whereas the first two categories are considered as generated by “purely physiological” cerebral processes, the “psychological” components result from such cerebral processes which belong to the direct neurophysiological basis of psychological processes. As an example of the latter cerebral processes, the one generating the “processing negativity” was described. The latter ERP component was suggested to be an on-line reflection of the cerebral process by which the subject recognizes a stimulus as the one to be attended to among competing stimulus streams. The present distinction of stimulus-triggered ERP components into three categories results in a suggestion involving three functional subsystems of the brain analysing sensory stimuli: the (1) exogenous sensory; (2) dynamogenic; and (3) central integrative (“psychological”) units.