TOPOGRAPHICAL PATTERNS OF ERP ELICITED BY DIFFERENT VISUAL INFORMATION-PROCESSING TASKS

Topographical patterns of event-related potentials were compared on a visual display terminal for a data-input task and a number-comparison task. Maximum negative peaks were found in the frontal and central reg ions for the former but at mid-line locations for the latter. Latencie s were shorter in the occipital regions than in the frontal regions fo r the former and the opposite pattern was found for the latter. An ana lysis of variance indicated that hemispheric location significantly af fected the amplitude of peaks. On the other hand, latencies were affec ted by the task, frontal and occipital regions, and their interaction. These results suggest that a pattern of the topographic display of ev ent-related potentials can be used as an objective means for classifyi ng visual tasks.