Comparison of averaging and regression techniques for estimating Event Related Potentials.

The traditional method of estimating an Event Related Potential (ERP) is to take the average of signal epochs time locked to a set of similar experimental events. This averaging method is useful as long as the experimental procedure can sufficiently isolate the brain or non-brain process of interest. However, if responses from multiple cognitive processes, time locked to multiple classes of closely spaced events, overlap in time with varying inter-event intervals, averaging will most likely fail to identify the individual response time courses.