Equivalent dipole modeling of topographic ERP-components: A developmental case study.

Reanalyzed cross-sectional event-related brain potential (ERP) data obtained in a previous study in which 24 Ss from 3 age groups (8-20, 14-25, and 18-29 yrs) performed a standard Oddball task. Topographic principal component analyses (PCAs) of the data yielded 3 components that explained most of the variance. Results are consistent with findings by Wijker et al showing marked differences between age groups in the scalp topography of the PCA components during the 380-580 msec time interval. Further analyses indicate that pooling across Ss resulted in component fields that could be modeled by an equivalent dipole only in a few instances.