Best Practices for Event-Related Potential Research in Clinical Populations

The event-related potential (ERP) technique has been used for decades to answer important questions about sensory, cognitive, motor, and emotion-related processes in clinical disorders. However, ERP research with clinical populations often involves unique challenges above and beyond the general issues involved in conducting ERP studies in typical research participants. The goal of this article is to provide an overview of the common challenges that arise in ERP research with clinical populations, including issues in experimental design and recording, analysis, and interpretation of ERPs. In addition, we provide strategies that have proven effective in each of these areas for maximizing the potential of the ERP technique to provide important insights about clinical disorders.