PREPARATION, SENSORY-MOTOR INTERACTION, RESPONSE EVALUATION, AND EVENT-RELATED BRAIN POTENTIALS

Jean Requin defined an approach to cognitive neuroscience that emphasi zed the importance of both sophisticated neuroscience and sophisticate d psychology. Requin's empirical work exemplified this approach by inv olving the most advanced techniques for the recording and analysis of single unit activity and by adopting the principles of ''mental chrono metry'' as a conceptual framework. At Illinois, we have also adopted t he same ''chronometric'' approach, although, rather than recording uni t activity, we have used measures derived from scalp-recorded event-re lated brain potentials. These measures (especially the lateralized rea diness potential and the error-related negativity) have provided impor tant insights into processes like preparation, sensory-motor interacti on, and response evaluation. Recently, we have begun to relate these s calp potentials to the neural systems that generate them. This should enable us to contribute to the kind of cognitive neuroscience that Req uin envisaged, and to develop theories about how cognitive processes a re implemented in the brain.