Do’s and Don’t’s with lateralized event-related brain potentials

K. Wiegand and E. Wascher (2005) used the lateralized readiness potential (LRP) to investigate the mechanisms underlying spatial stimulus-response (S-R) correspondence. The authors compared spatial S-R correspondence effects obtained with horizontal and vertical S-R arrangements. In some relevant previous investigations on spatial S-R correspondence with the LRP, researchers preferred to use the vertical S-R layout to circumvent methodological issues related to the LRP and horizontal S-R layouts. K. Wiegand and E. Wascher (2005) do not address these complications, and they make comparisons between electroencephalographic (EEG) data collected with horizontal and vertical S-R arrangements that do not take into account the limitations inherent to the LRP derivation. This methodological weakness renders unsound the neurophysiological support for their views on the nature of spatial S-R compatibility effects. In this article, the author discusses the limitations and possibilities of lateralized event-related potentials (ERPs) in the investigation of spatial S-R correspondence effects.