Time-Frequency Analysis of Event-Related Brain Potentials (ERP):

Abstract

A time-frequency decomposition was applied to rare target and frequent nontarget event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited in an oddball condition to assess whether multiple functional components occur in the P300 latency range. The wavelet transform (WT) was used because it allows to capture simultaneous or partly overlapping components in ERPs without loosing their temporal relationships. The application of a four-octave quadratic B-spline wavelet transform permitted to obtain new information and revealed the presence of separate events during P300 development. It was demonstrated that several delta, theta, and alpha frequency components in the P300 latency range differed between target and nontarget processing. These findings indicate that P300 is composed of multiple functional components and that the WT method may contribute to study P300 functional correlates more precisely.