Neuroelectric concepts: form-color classification.

Visual event-related potentials (VEPs) were recorded from the scalp of human observers who viewed an orthogonal stimulus set, consisting of four stimuli, each of which had two attributes: a form (circle or triangle) and a color (green or red). The stimulus set was represented by an a priori stimulus classification model, defined by positions (i.e., degrees of arc) on a unit circle that specified the relationships among the form and color features. An analysis of VEP deviation waveshapes (delta VEP: deviations around average VEP for each electrode) showed that the a priori unit circle model predicted morphologies of the delta VEP waveshapes, as well as the overall relationships between waveshapes obtained for the form and the color attributes. Further analyses demonstrated that individual delta VEP waveshapes for color and for form were located on the circumference of a unit circle at the positions (angle) specified by the a priori model. The studies show that formal modeling of the way humans classify stimulus attributes provides a quantitative and predictive model of the way VEPs become classified and organized according to psychological principles.

Psychophysiological indices of cerebral maturation.

Maturation (1-21 yr) trajectories for quantitative electroencephalographic (QEEG) frequency spectra are presented for four regions of the human brain. The results show that all four regions exhibited discontinuous maturation rates: five stages were identified. The stages were synchronous across regions during the first 10 1/2 years of life. Thereafter, the four maturation trajectories became independent of one another. Interestingly, a major maturational advance was recorded from the frontal regions, during late adolescence. The relationships between these findings to maturation rates in skull volume, cortical thickness, cortical volume and nerve cell density measurements was discussed. These converging results indicate that the observed QEEG stages can reliably be interpreted as landmarks in cerebral maturation.

Implications of genetic variation in mouse brain structure for electrode placement by stereotaxic surgery.

The spatial locations of several forebrain and midbrain fibre tracts have been compared across seven commonly used inbred, hybrid and outbred mouse strains using a series of electrolytic lesions of known positions with respect to a stereotaxic instrument. Highly significant genetic variation was found in the position of lambda, bregma and several major fibre tracts with respect to interaural zero; in the locations of fibre tracts with respect to bregma; and in the location of fibre tracts with respect to each other. It was demonstrated that stereotaxic coordinates of a structure for one strain could not be used for other strains. Errors resulting from improper alignment of the head in the instrument and histological artifact were also determined. These errors showed no significant group differences, but they revealed that within-group variation was substantially affected by such imperfections.