Roth W T, Tecce J J, Pfefferbaum A, Rosenbloom M, Callaway E
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1984;425:496-522. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1984.tb23573.x.
The clinical study of ERPs has an inherent defect--a self-selection of clinical populations that hampers equating of clinically defined groups on factors extraneous to the independent variables. Such ex post facto studies increase the likelihood of confounding variables in the interpretation of findings. Hence, the development of lawful relationships between clinical variables and ERPs is impeded and the fulfillment of description, explanation, prediction, and control in brain science is thwarted. Proper methodologies and theory development can increase the likelihood of establishing these lawful relationships. One methodology of potential value in the clinical application of ERPs, particularly in studies of aging, is that of divided attention. Two promising theoretical developments in the understanding of brain functioning and aging are the distraction-arousal hypothesis and the controlled-automatic attention model. The evaluation of ERPs in the study of brain-behavior relations in clinical populations might be facilitated by the differentiation of concurrent, predictive, content, and construct validities.
事件相关电位（ERPs）的临床研究存在一个固有缺陷——临床研究对象的自我选择，这阻碍了在与自变量无关的因素上对临床定义的组进行等同处理。这种事后研究增加了在解释研究结果时出现混杂变量的可能性。因此，临床变量与事件相关电位之间合法关系的发展受到阻碍，脑科学中描述、解释、预测和控制的实现也受到阻碍。适当的方法和理论发展可以增加建立这些合法关系的可能性。在事件相关电位的临床应用中，特别是在衰老研究中，一种具有潜在价值的方法是分散注意力法。在理解大脑功能和衰老方面有两个有前景的理论发展，即分心-唤醒假说和控制-自动注意模型。临床人群脑-行为关系研究中对事件相关电位的评估可能会因同时效度、预测效度、内容效度和结构效度的区分而得到促进。
