Identifying the neurological sources of ERP components based on the topographical distribution of the N1 on the scalp is especially difficult because the number of potential sources (referred to as dipoles), orientations, and magnitudes that can produce the topographical distribution of the N1, like any other ERP component, is theoretically infinite. This problem of working from the topographical distribution of ERP components to identifying neural sources, is referred to as the Inverse problem.Luck, S.J. (2005). An Introduction to the Event-Related Potential Technique. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press. Although the neural generators of the N1 are not definitively known, evidence suggests that the N1 does not originate in the primary visual cortex, but instead from multiple generators in the occipito-parietal, occipito-temporal, and (possibly) frontal cortex.Clark, V.P., Fan, S., & Hillyard, S.A. (1995). Identification of early visual evoked potential generators by retinotopic and topographic analyses. Human Brain Mapping, 2, 170-187.
