Application of multimedia technology to the recording of cognitive event related potentials

The author illustrates how recent advances in multimedia technology may be applied to the recording of cognitive event-related potential (ERP) paradigms. A Turbo Pascal library which provides an interface to the features of the Sound Blaster Pro (SBP) card for the IBM PC is described. It permits tones of specified frequency (500 Hz - 6 kHz) and aversive noise to be controlled by an external program. Tones are synthesized by hardware and noise is replayed from a file using the digital sound processor. The library may be augmented to provide more complex stimuli, such as short segments of speech or music. The card and software provide a simple, versatile and cost effective alternative to an audiometer. Visual stimuli may be presented using a multimedia PC and presentation package, linked to the acquisition computer.<>