The Responsive Brain covers the proceedings of the Third International Congress on Event-related Slow Potentials of the Brain, held in Bristol, England on August 13-18, 1973. The book focuses on various actions of the brain, including responses to stimuli, language production, and cortical responses. The selection first offers information on the topography of evoked potential amplitude fluctuations; thoughts on measurement of 'the' contingent negative variation (CNV); and implications of cross-modality stimulus permutations for the CNV. The book also touches on the distribution of response to non-signal stimuli; cortical responses evoked by thermal stimuli in man; and pattern discrimination in the spatial distribution of the contingent negative variation. The publication ponders on brain slow potential changes and motor response in a vigilance situation; CNV and post-response negativity with stressful auditory feedback; and CNV-heart rate response under gradual sleep reduction. The text also elaborates on the evaluation of event-related slow potentials in selected groups of psychiatric patients; event-related slow potentials in mental retardates; and electroencephalographic localization of conative aspects of language production in the human brain. The selection is a dependable reference for readers interested in event-related slow potentials of the brain.

This volume is based on the proceedings of a NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Slow Potential Changes in the Human Brain that was held at II Ciocco, Tuscany, Italy over the period 13-16th May, 1990. The Workshop Director was Dr. W. C. McCallum of the Burden Neurological Institute, Bristol, England. The meeting was superbly organised and proved to be both stimulating and productive. On behalf of everyone who attended the meeting, I would like to II Ciocco for express my appreciation to NATO for the provision of funding and to providing such a marvellous conference venue. I must apologise to everyone who has contributed to this volume for the length of time it has taken to produce a finished book. As you are all aware, the untimely death of Cheyne McCallum, who was to have been the sole editor of this volume, was very disruptive to both the book and myself. Following Cheyne's death I assumed the responsibility for completing the book as was his wish. I would like to thank you all for your patience and understanding. I would like to acknowledge my indebtedness to the Burden Neurological Institute in general and very specifically to Mrs. Chris Gough who has laboured extensively in the production of this volume.

The past decade has seen great progress in the measurement of evoked potentials in man; a steady increase in our understanding of their charac teristics, their origins and their usefulness; and a growing application in the field of clinical diagnosis. The topic is a truly multidisciplinary one. Important research contributions have been made by workers of many different backgrounds and clinical applications span the specialities. This book represents a revised and updated version of the work originally presented at the international evoked potential symposium held in Nottingham 4-6 1978. The Nottingham Symposium provided a forum for a state-of-the-art discussion amongst workers from many different disciplines and from many different countries. For each major topic in the field an expert review set the scene for discussion of current research presentations. This format is retained in the book: the chapters in Part A provide the context in which the research presented in Part B is set. The task of selecting material for this book, from the wealth of interesting work presented at the Symposium, was undertaken by a selection committee of distinguished authors who were the chairmen for the specialized sessions. To Dr F. W. Campbell, Professor S. J. Crews, Mr W. P. R. Gibson, Professor G. F. A. Harding, Dr D. A. Jeffreys, Dr D. G. Small, Professor H. Spekreijse, Dr A. Starr, Dr A. R. D. Thornton and Professor L. H. van der Tweel, I record my thanks.

Bioelectric Recording Techniques Part B: Electroencephalography and Human Brain Potentials is part of the multivolume series Methods in Physiological Psychology. The series begins with the treatment of bioelectric recording techniques in three volumes (Parts A, B, and C). Part B deals with electroencephalography (EEG) and peripheral recording of brain events in man. The book is organized into three parts. The first part deals with EEG recording in animals and man, beginning with a historical review of EEG recording and a comprehensive discussion of modern techniques and experimental problems in recording brain potentials. Also covered are techniques of human EEG recording and abnormal brain activity. The second part deals with evoked human brain potentials. These include a comprehensive discussion of procedures for stimulation and recording of human averaged evoked potentials; methods of analysis of EEG and evoked activity; and the influence of psychological variables and processes on the human averaged evoked scalp potential. The third part treats the contingent negative variation (CNV). This scalp recorded response has occasioned much recent interest, in part because it appears to correlate with ""psychological"" processes.