ERPLAB TOOLBOX USERÕS MANUAL

Version 1.0.0

6 August 2010

 

UserÕs Manual written by Candace Markley, Steve Luck, and Javier Lopez-Calderon

ERPLAB Toolbox core designed by Javier Lopez-Calderon and Steve Luck

 

 

Important note: Because this is a first release, bugs are inevitable. In some cases, errors will occur leading to a message that instructs you to report the error to the EEGLAB developers.  If this happens, please report the error to us at erplab@erpinfo.org and not to the EEGLAB developers. ERPLAB has primarily been tested using EEG collected with a Biosemi ActiveTwo System, along with a smaller amount of testing using EEG collected with Neuroscan and EGI systems. Consequently, you should be particularly careful when using this version of ERPLAB with data collected with systems other than the Biosemi ActiveTwo.

ERPLAB Toolbox is in a period of rapid development.  This version is designed to provide most basic ERP processing functions; enhanced versions of these functions and additional functions will be forthcoming over the next several years.  Feel free to make your own modifications and additions to the toolbox, and send them to us if you think they would be of value to other users. 

Some features are present in this version that have not yet been documented, and some features may have changed since this document was released. In addition, some of the screen shots shown in this document may reflect previous versions and may not conform with the text.  The documentation, like the software, is a work in progress.

The purpose of this UserÕs Manual is to provide a detailed description of the ERPLAB functions, along with a discussion of the overall design of the toolbox.  For Ōhow-toĶ information, see the ERPLAB Tutorial, which provides step-by-step instructions for analyzing a typical set of data.  A Frequently Asked Questions document is also available.

We have set up three web-based discussion groups.  One is designed for people to ask questions and give and receive advice about how to use ERPLAB Toolbox.  Another is designed for reporting bugs and describing work-arounds.  The third is designed to give users the opportunity to make suggestions about modifications and new features.  They can be accessed at http://erpinfo.org/erplab/erplab-discussion/erplab-discussion-forum/ (you will need to join the erpinfo.org web site to access these discussion groups).  There is also an email list, erplab@erpinfo.org, that you can use to communicate with the developers and with other users.  If you would like to join this list, you should go to http://mail01.cmb.ucdavis.edu/mailman/listinfo/erplab. 

Please keep in mind that this is FREE software, and we do not have the resources to provide the level of support that commercial software vendors can provide.


Table of Contents

 

INSTALLATION INFORMATION

INTRODUCTION TO ERPLAB

IMPORTANT BACKGROUND CONCEPTS AND DATA STRUCTURES

BASIC ERPLAB PROCESSING STEPS

USING EEGLAB

THE EVENTLIST STRUCTURE

Boundary Events and Disabled Events

ASSIGNING EVENTS TO BINS WITH BINLISTER

EPOCHING BINS

ARTIFACT DETECTION

BEHAVIORAL ANALYSES

COMPUTE AVERAGED ERPS

GETTING USEFUL INFORMATION FROM THE MATLAB COMMAND LINE

ERP BIN OPERATIONS

EEG AND ERP CHANNEL OPERATIONS

FILTERING

PLOTTING ERP WAVEFORMS

TOPOGRAPHIC MAPPING

SAVING, LOADING, DUPLICATING, RENAMING, CLEARING, AND EXPORTING ERPSETS

AVERAGING ACROSS ERPSETS (CREATING GRAND AVERAGES)

ERP MEASUREMENT TOOL

SCRIPTING USING ERPLAB

ERPLABÕS FUNCTIONS