The use of endogenous <Emphasis Type="Italic">P</Emphasis>300 event-related potentials of the brain for assessing cognitive functions in healthy subjects and in clinical practice

Assessment of higher mental functions, objective detection of cognitive impairments, and investigation of pathophysiological mechanisms underlying these impairments in various neuropsychological diseases are of great importance for neuropsychophysiology. The endogenous event-related potential (ERP) approach is one of the instrumental neurophysiological methods that are currently used for assessing these complicated processes because recorded potentials reflect the intrinsic brain activity and changes in these potentials are caused by endogenous factors of the brain activity. The P300 cognitive evoked potential, induced by selective attention to a stimulus, has been the most widely used endogenous ERP. This potential may be helpful for studying mechanisms of mental disturbances, as it reflects neuronal processes connected with nonspecific activating reticulothalamic systems, as well as with limbic and neocortical mechanisms of selective attention and short-term memory.