Abstract
The averaged evoked response (AER) is rapidly coming of age psychiatrically, and will soon be ready for practical application. There are changes with sleep and with drugs, and there are changes in the excitability cycle that correlate with age, psychosis and extroversion. However, the long latency "cognitive" evoked response that may reflect such things as interest, expectation, the depolyment of attention and the assignment of meaning seem to hold the greatest promise for practical applications. This review is an attempt to intrigue other psychiatrists and to supply to a guide to items in the scattered literature that might be useful to those who would join in turning AERs to clinical purposes.