%0 Journal Article %A William Giroldini %A Luciano Pederzoli %A Marco Bilucaglia %A Simone Melloni %A Patrizio Tressoldi %T A New method to detect Event-Related Potentials based on Pearson’s Correlation %D 2015 %R 10.1101/022046 %J bioRxiv %P 022046 %X Background Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) are widely used in Brain Computer Interfaces applications and in neurology and psychology for the study of cognitive process, mental disorders, attention deficit, schizophrenia, autism, etc. Because the spontaneous noisy EEG activity is uncorrelated with the ERP waveform, the noise will decrease in the order of 1/√(N) (inverse of square root of N), where N is the number of averaged epochs. Since the background EEG activity has a higher amplitude than ERPs waveform, the averaging technique highlights ERPs and attenuates the noise. This is the easiest strategy currently used to detect ERPs.New Method In this paper, a new method is proposed, called GW6, in order to calculate the ERP using a mathematical routine based only on Pearson’s Correlation.Results The result is a graphic with the same time-resolution of the classic ERP that shows positive peaks representing the increase of correlation of the EEG signal in correspondence to the stimuli.Comparison with Existing Methods the GW6 method allows highlighting other components of ERP response, usually hidden in the standard and simple method based on the averaging of all the phase and time-locked epochs. For this reason, this new method could be very helpful to investigate these hidden components of the ERP response and to develop applications for medical purposes.Conclusions The method we are proposing can be directly used in the form of software written in Visual Basic and easily and quickly implemented in any other programming language.HighlightsA new method is proposed, called GW6, in order to calculate the ERP (Event-Related Potential) using a mathematical routine based only on Pearson’s CorrelationThe result is a graphic with the same time-resolution of the classic ERP that shows positive peaks representing the increase of correlation of the EEG signal in correspondence to the stimuliThe method we are proposing can be directly used in the form of software written in Visual Basic and easily and quickly implemented in any other programming language. %U https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2015/08/11/022046.full.pdf