Developmental changes in early cognitive processes.

The three paradigms presented in this paper demonstrate the value of ERPs in examining the development of early cognitive processes. Although we have presented only three examples, early cognitive processing could be investigated in a wide range of paradigms using ERPs, in normal as well as clinical populations. Clearly, a next step in understanding the age-related changes in these cognitive processes is to employ dipole source localization to examine the involvement of different generators and their maturation. The final conclusion is that developmental studies are important as they can contribute to our understanding of models of processing and of the generators of ERPs, in terms of cognition as well as neuroanatomy. Hence, the models of cognitive processes in adults should include the development of those processes through childhood.