Mental chronometry uses measurements of elapsed time between sensory stimulus onsets and subsequent behavioral responses to study the time course of information processing in the nervous system. Distributional characteristics of response times such as means and variance are considered useful indices of processing speed and efficiency, indicating how fast an individual can execute task-relevant mental operations. Behavioral responses are typically button presses, but eye movements, vocal responses, and other observable behaviors are often used. Reaction time is thought to be constrained by the speed of signal transmission in white matter as well as the processing efficiency of neocortical gray matter.