In conclusion, this review has addressed the merits of using CSD and Laplacian measures in comparison to raw potential data obtained from either resting state or task conditions as applied to several neuropsychiatric conditions, such as alcoholism, schizophrenia, depression, conduct disorder, autism, ADHD, epilepsy, and space-occupying brain lesions. This review has also provided evidence for the possibility that CSD and Laplacian measures can serve as effective and sensitive neurocognitive markers in several neuropsychiatric conditions. It is observed that there is a perceptible dearth of CSD studies in some of the major clinical domains, such as internalizing disorders, childhood and developmental disorders, and neurological conditions. Several limitations and concerns of present CSD methods have also been discussed, with possible solutions from future studies. As clearly outlined in this review, proven merits and advantages of CSD measures, including enhanced spatial resolution, sensitivity to the regional brain electrical activity, reference independence, and enhanced interpretability of the neuroelectric signals, will potentially render this method as one of the most powerful and promising tools for future electrophysiological research as well as for a variety of clinical applications including diagnosis and treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders.
