ERP researcher

Why this order

This is the whole ladder for someone whose output is an ERP result, with nothing skipped between the raw signal and the statistics — because every stage of an ERP analysis is a place where the result can be manufactured rather than measured.

Level 0 first, because an ERP is an average of traces and you cannot judge an average you could not have read one trial of. The artifact atlas (L0.5) is what later lets you decide whether a deflection is a component or a residue, and the hygiene lesson (L0.6) is what stops a defective subject from becoming a finding.

Level 1 next, because filtering is the first thing done to the data and the last thing described properly. The high-pass argument in L1.5 is the single most consequential choice in an ERP pipeline — it can create an early component and shrink a late one — and it only makes sense on top of the spectral chain in L1.2–L1.4.

Level 2 before Level 3, because reference (L2.3), filter settings (L2.4) and rejection (L2.5) each move ERP amplitudes by more than most published effects do, and because an analysis that is not a script is not a result anyone can check (L2.8).

Level 3 is the substance: epoching and baseline, averaging and components, measurement, topography, trial counts and design, single-trial views, and the test. It ends with C3, a replication of a published ERP CORE effect, which exercises the previous twenty-one lessons at once under the constraint that makes them matter — the pipeline and the measurement window are fixed before the effect is visible.

Then Level 6 rather than Levels 4–5, because the inference chapters protect an ERP result rather than extend it, and each of them generalises something Level 3 introduced: L6.1 generalises the cluster test of L3.7, L6.2 the single-trial regression of L3.6, L6.3 the trial-count argument of L3.5, L6.4 the measurement-window argument of L3.3, and L6.6 makes the whole thing legible to a reader. C6 audits someone else’s analysis, which is the same skill as auditing your own. Time-frequency, source and applied work are omitted on purpose: they are different outputs, and a path that included them would stop being an ERP path.

Paths do not add content; they filter and order the ladder (§7). Lesson pages keep their own prerequisite links.

Lessons (35; about 29 h 40 min of lesson time, plus the two capstones)

1. L0.1 What EEG measures · 40 min
2. L0.2 Electrodes, montages and the 10-20 system · 40 min
3. L0.3 Amplifiers, sampling and recording · 45 min
4. L0.4 Reading raw traces · 60 min
5. L0.5 The artifact atlas · 75 min
6. L0.6 Data hygiene and metadata · 45 min
7. L1.1 Sampling, Nyquist and aliasing · 40 min
8. L1.2 Time and frequency domains · 60 min
9. L1.3 Power spectral density · 60 min
10. L1.4 Windowing, leakage and zero-padding · 30 min
11. L1.5 Filters: FIR, IIR, and what they do to your data · 75 min
12. L1.6 Line noise · 40 min
13. L1.7 Aperiodic and periodic components · 60 min
14. L2.1 Loading data and BIDS · 45 min
15. L2.2 Channel locations and bad channels · 60 min
16. L2.3 Re-referencing · 50 min
17. L2.4 Filtering in practice · 45 min
18. L2.5 Artifact rejection strategies · 50 min
19. L2.6 EOG regression and ICA · 90 min
20. L2.7 ASR, SSP and alternatives · 45 min
21. L2.8 Pipeline order and reproducibility · 60 min
22. L3.1 Epoching and baseline · 50 min
23. L3.2 The ERP and its components · 60 min
24. L3.3 Measuring ERPs · 60 min
25. L3.4 Topographies and scalp maps · 40 min
26. L3.5 SNR, trial counts and design · 50 min
27. L3.6 Single-trial approaches · 45 min
28. L3.7 Statistics for ERPs · 75 min
29. C3 Capstone — Replicate ERP CORE
30. L6.1 The multiple-comparisons landscape · 60 min
31. L6.2 Mixed models and trial-level data · 75 min
32. L6.3 Effect sizes, power and precision · 50 min
33. L6.4 Circularity and analytic flexibility · 60 min
34. L6.6 Reporting standards · 40 min
35. C6 Capstone — Rigor audit

Skipped prerequisites (optional reading)

These two lessons are prerequisites of lessons this path includes, and the path skips them. They are optional here, not removed — the lesson pages keep their prerequisite links.

• L4.7 Statistics for time-frequency — a prerequisite of L6.1. It is the cluster machinery of L3.7 with one more axis; read it if your inference will ever cover a time-frequency map as well as a waveform.
• L6.5 Decoding as inference — a prerequisite of L6.6 and relevant to C6. Read it if the analyses you report or audit include a classifier.

Lessons in order

1. L0.1 · What EEG measures ~40 min
2. L0.2 · Electrodes, montages and the 10-20 system ~40 min
3. L0.3 · Amplifiers, sampling and recording ~45 min
4. L0.4 · Reading raw traces ~60 min
5. L0.5 · The artifact atlas ~75 min
6. L0.6 · Data hygiene and metadata ~45 min
7. L1.1 · Sampling, Nyquist and aliasing ~40 min
8. L1.2 · Time and frequency domains ~60 min
9. L1.3 · Power spectral density ~60 min
10. L1.4 · Windowing, leakage and zero-padding ~30 min
11. L1.5 · Filters: FIR, IIR, and what they do to your data ~75 min
12. L1.6 · Line noise ~40 min
13. L1.7 · Aperiodic and periodic components ~60 min
14. L2.1 · Loading data and BIDS ~45 min
15. L2.2 · Channel locations and bad channels ~60 min
16. L2.3 · Re-referencing ~50 min
17. L2.4 · Filtering in practice ~45 min
18. L2.5 · Artifact rejection strategies ~50 min
19. L2.6 · EOG regression and ICA ~90 min
20. L2.7 · ASR, SSP and alternatives ~45 min
21. L2.8 · Pipeline order and reproducibility ~60 min
22. L3.1 · Epoching and baseline ~50 min
23. L3.2 · The ERP and its components ~60 min
24. L3.3 · Measuring ERPs ~60 min
25. L3.4 · Topographies and scalp maps ~40 min
26. L3.5 · SNR, trial counts and design ~50 min
27. L3.6 · Single-trial approaches ~45 min
28. L3.7 · Statistics for ERPs ~75 min
29. C3 · Capstone — Replicate ERP CORE ~360 min
30. L6.1 · The multiple-comparisons landscape ~60 min
31. L6.2 · Mixed models and trial-level data ~75 min
32. L6.3 · Effect sizes, power and precision ~50 min
33. L6.4 · Circularity and analytic flexibility ~60 min
34. L6.6 · Reporting standards ~40 min
35. C6 · Capstone — Rigor audit ~300 min