**3.7 Late Positive Components (LPP, PPC, P600)**

The late positive potential (LPP) is considered to be a family of components (although initially was described by Sutton in 1965 as a unique, frontal bilateral positivity). This late component (300 to 700 ms) is sensitive to stimuli valence and to the previous emotional context (Cacioppo et al., 1994, Schupp et al., 2000). Its amplitude, according to several studies, increases in response to motivationally relevant stimuli (i.e., pleasant or unpleasant images; Cuthbert et al., 2000; Schupp et al., 2000; Schupp, Junghofer, Weike and Hamm, 2004). The amplitude, latency and topography of LPP are modulated by the semantic emotional valence of stimuli (Cunningham et al., 2007) and contextual information (Cornejo et al., 2009; Hurtado et al., 2009). The late positive complex (LPC) is a component similar to LPP and has been related to the process of re-analysis of the incongruent situation produced by inconsistent meaning (Ibanez et al., 2010a, 2011b; Sitnikova, Kuperberg and Holcomb, 2003). The P600 is considered to be an index for second pass-parsing processes of information processing, having much in common with working memory operations. It is associated with superior frontal, temporal and parietal regions, which are believed to contribute to some aspects of information processing during recognition memory.

#### **3.8 N400 and N400-like**

400 Neuroimaging – Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience

shown to be sensitive to orthographic/phonological tasks, semantic categorization tasks,

Is a negative deflection resulting from a deviation in form or context of a prevailing stimulus? Normally, N2 is evoked 180 to 235 ms following the presentation of a specific visual or auditory stimulus. Additionally, the N2 is considered to be a family of different components, but its classic consideration can be elicited through an experimental oddball paradigm and is sensitive to perceptual features (Bentin et al., 1999). This component is also associated with conflict detection during the regulation of successful behavior (Nieuwenhuis, Yeung, Van Den Wildenberg and Ridderinkhof, 2003). The source of N2 modulation compromises the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC hereafter, a brain area susceptible to social monitoring of conflict) and other prefrontal cortex areas (Nieuwenhuis

The N170/VPP complex is a negative peak around 170 ms in the temporal-occipital regions and simultaneously one central-frontal positivity (VPP), functionally equivalent (Joyce and Rossion, 2005). The source of N170 compromises the inferior temporal gyrus and the fusiform gyrus (two neural areas associated with specific face processing). Its amplitude is greater for human faces, compared with objects or other stimuli (Bentin, Allison, Puce, Perez and McCarthy, 1996; Jeffreys, 1989). During the face-processing task, N170 is sometimes followed by a P2, a N250 and an LPP component modulated by other variables. The N170 component has shown amplitude/latency modulation based on race cues (Ibanez et al., 2010c; Ito and Ulrand, 2005; Gonzales et al., 2008), emotional variables (Ashley, Vuilleunier

The EPN is a middle-latency component that has been associated with different stages of valence information processing and affective discrimination (Schupp et al., 2004a, 2004b). Di Russo, Taddei, Apnile and Spinelli (2006) suggested that EPN would reflect early valence discrimination and response selection processes. Additionally, Schupp et al. (2004a) have stated that the processing indexed by the EPN is modulated by perceptual features that facilitate further evaluation of arousing stimuli. Different studies have found a modulation differing from the neutral for both emotional (pleasant, unpleasant) categories of pictures (e.g., Dufey et al., 2010; Cuthbert, Schupp, Bradley, Birbaumer and Lang (2000). Nevertheless, specific effects (task or stimuli-dependent) on EPN in relation to valence and

This component has been described as engaging higher-order cognitive operations related to selective attention and resource allocation (Donchin and Coles, 1988). The P3 amplitude may serve as a covert measure of attention that arises independently of behavioral responding (Gray et al., 2004). The component has also been related to a post-decisional "cognitive closure" mechanism (Desmedt, 1980; Verleger, 1998); and to the access of information for consciousness (Picton, 1992). Its amplitude generally varies as a function of the temporal

reward-punishment discrimination and lexical decision tasks.

**3.4 N170/Vertex Positive Potential (N170/VPP)** 

and Swick, 2004) and contextual effects (Ibanez et al. 2011d).

the influence of arousal should be further assessed.

**3.5 Early Posterior Negativity (EPN)** 

**3.6 P300 (or P3)** 

**3.3 N200 (or N2)** 

et al., 2003).

The N400 is a negative component that appears around 400 ms after the presentation of semantically unrelated information between two words or between a context and a word. Although this component was first studied in the linguistic field, recent studies have extended previous results to richer action sequences and pictorial stimuli (sometimes called N350 or N400-like), such as congruent-incongruent pictures or videos of gestures, actions and motor events (Aravena et al., 2010; Cornejo et al., 2009; Proverbio et al., 2010; Ibañez et al., 2010b, 2011; Guerra et al., 2009; Sitnikova et al., 2003). Although spatial resolution provided by ERP does not allow a precise localization of N400 neural generators, evidence from lesion studies, MEG and intracranial recordings converge to implicate temporal areas (left superior/middle temporal gyrus, the anterior-medial temporal lobe, the PHC and anterior fusiform gyrus) as the possible sources of N400 (Van Petten and Luka, 2006). This N400 points to a distributed and multimodal system that is simultaneously open to verbal and nonverbal meanings (Kutas and Federmeier, 2000).

#### **3.9 Contingent Negative Variation (CNV)**

CNV is an extended and prolonged negative potential recorded during simple, warned reaction time paradigms from central and parietal scalp fields. Its scalp distribution always begins bilaterally and symmetrically at the midline of the precentral-parietal regions, approximately 1.000 to 1.500 ms before response movement. CNV is a correlate of anticipation of the latter presentation of a stimulus target (Picton and Hillyard, 1988; Walter, Cooper, Aldridge, McCallum and Winter, 1964).

Event-Related Potential Studies of Cognitive and Social Neuroscience 403

feedback correct-related positivity (fCRP), respectively. According to an extended theory called the "reinforcement learning theory of ERN," both forms of ERN/fERN reflect the function of a generic, high-level error-processing system in humans (Holroyd and Coles, 2002). Both the ERN and fERN have a main source on the cingulate cortex, the anterior and

The movement-related cortical potentials (MRCP) associated with self-paced movements are considered to be a measure of motor cortex excitability and allow the exploration of cortical changes related to motor preparation and execution. The readiness potential (RP, or in its original German name, Bereitschaftspotential) precedes voluntary muscle movement and represents the cortical contribution to the pre-motor planning of volitional movement. The RP was first described in 1964 by Hans Helmut Kornhuber and Lüder Deecke. The lateralized readiness potential (LRP) is a particular form of RP in response to certain movements of one side (left or right) of the body. Being related to RP, another negativity measured over Cz beginning shortly before the response onset (-90 ms) has been named the motor potential (MP) or late motor-related potential (late MRP; Aravena et al., 2010). The MP is likely to represent pyramidal neuron activity in the primary cortex (M1) at motor execution. MP amplitude modulation has been associated with the rapidness and precision of movement and also with short-term training effects. Finally, another component with a peak over Cz after movement onset (200-300 ms) has been named the re-afferent potential (RAP). RAP is an index of movement-related sensory feedback to the primary sensorymotor cortex and is considered an indicator of attention (Aravena et al., 2010, see Figure 2).

Context-dependence effects are pervasive in everyday cognition (Barutta et al., 2011; Cosmelli and Ibañez, 2008; Ibanez and Cosmelli, 2008; Ibanez et al., 2010a), especially in the case of language (Ledoux, Camblin, Swaab and Gordon, 2006; Rodriguez-Fornells, Cunillera, Mestres-Misse and de Diego-Balaguer, 2009). We listen and say words within other streams of words. We perceive the emotion of a face altogether with the emotional body language, the semantics, the prosody and other cues from the situation. Language use can be tracked by assessing the influence of context parameters (such as intonation, lexical choice, prosody, and paralinguistic clues) in a current communicative situation. ERPs studies of early (N170 and ELAN) and late components (N400, LPC, LPP) have provided important insights about the temporal brain dynamics of contextual effects in language. For instance, important issues, such as automaticity of contextual effects, multimodal blending of meanings, action-sentence coupling, language-like gesture processing, language and social information coupling, and early emotional word processing have been demonstrated within ERP research (Aravena et al., 2010; Cornejo et al., 2009; Hagoort, 2008; Ibanez et al., 2006, 2009, 2010b, 2010c, 2011b; 2011c, 2011d, 2011e, Van Petten and Luka, 2006). Contextual effects in language assessed with ERPs is a relevant topic in diverse areas of neuropsychiatric research, such as schizophrenia (Guerra et al., 2009; Ibanez et al., 2011c), Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment (Schwartz et al., 2003; Taylor and Olichney, 2007), focal basal ganglia lesions (Paulmann, Pell and Kotz, 2008) alcoholism (Roopesh et al., 2009) and aphasia (Wassenaar and Hagoort, 2005), among other conditions.

the posterior division.

**3.11 Motor components (RP, LRP, MP, RAP)** 

**4. Representative areas of social cognitive neuroscience** 

**4.1 Contextual approaches to language** 

#### **3.10 Error-Related Negativity (ERN) and Feedback Error-Related Negativity (fERN)**

The ERN is a component observed 50 to 100 ms after a response characterized as being of high conflict in which a dominant response is inconsistent with respect to the correct response (Hohnsbein, Falkenstein and Hoormann, 1995 and others). The ERN is an index for the general sensitivity of the conflict monitoring system, which can be used to predict successful patterns of control (Yeung, Botvinick, and Cohen, 2004). Feedback error-related negativity (fERN) has been referred to as a negative deflection in the event-related potential (ERP), which distinguishes between wins/losses or correct/error trials in terms of expected and unexpected outcomes (e.g., San Martin et al., 2010). In correct (ERN) or win trials (fERN), similar components have been named Correct Related Negativity (CRN) and

Fig. 2. Motor potential (MP and RAP) modulated by compatibility with semantic stimuli. A) Verbal stimuli used in an action-sentence compatibility paradigm. B) Participants' open- and close-hand responses. C) Scalp topography of the motor response at baseline, zero-time response and 200 ms after the response. D) Motor potential (MP and RAP) modulated by the compatibility between the participant motor responses (open or close) and the semantic stimuli (sentences containing open- or close-hand actions). Modified from Aravena et al., 2010.

feedback correct-related positivity (fCRP), respectively. According to an extended theory called the "reinforcement learning theory of ERN," both forms of ERN/fERN reflect the function of a generic, high-level error-processing system in humans (Holroyd and Coles, 2002). Both the ERN and fERN have a main source on the cingulate cortex, the anterior and the posterior division.
