ERPDB: An Integrated Database of ERP Data for Neuroinformatics Research

Event-related potential (ERP) is the measurement of the brain's electrical activity in response to different types of events, such as attention, words, thinking, or sounds. By measuring the brain's response to such events, we can learn how different types of information are processed. As the mass of recorded ERP data explodes, an automatic and accurate tool to store, manage, and retrieve data readily is of increasing concern in neuroinformatics. In this paper, we describe a relational ERP database that has been constructed using the SQL server 2000 database management system and an IIS web server that has been setup for data retrieval through a custom web interface (http://202.113.232.103:8088/erpdb/index.asp). A novel database structure has been used to store ERP data of different activity channels, which provides a rapid and accurate way for data retrieval within any given range on the time zone with various searching options. The database is divided into: (1) subjects' information and record information and (2) ERP data, which has been structured and standardized in a database table supplemented with unrestricted text files. It can integrate or exchange data with other clinical databases or computer-based information systems through a program based on ADO techniques. Users are able to readily retrieve ERP data through the user-friendly web page interface. All online resources of the database are freely available to the scientific community. As the database develops further, we anticipate it will become a valuable tool that will make a great contribution to everyday clinical practice, teaching, and research work inneuroscience and psychology in the future.