Motion-onset visual-evoked potentials as a function of retinal eccentricity in man

Abstract

Visual-evoked potentials were elicited by the motion-onset of a black-and-white square-wave grating of 2.4 cycles/deg that drifted from right to left at a velocity of 3 deg/s. The center of the 2 x 2 deg stimulus field was binocularly viewed either foveally or at eccentricities of 6, 12, or 20 deg in the lower visual field along the vertical meridian. Peak-to-peak amplitudes P1-N2 and N2-P2 were found to decrease non-linearly as a function of eccentricity. The VEP-amplitudes were standardized by setting each foveal value to 100%, and a relative measure was derived for peripheral values given by the ratio of the peripheral to the foveal values. The decrease of the relative VEP-values with eccentricity was significantly smaller than that of the relative cortical magnification factor of striate cortex in man, whereas it agreed fairly well with that of the relative point-image size of the area MT in Macaque monkey. In this respect, the motion-onset VEP is distinct from the pattern-reversal VEP, the amplitude of which decreases much more rapidly with retinal eccentricity; hence, it may involve different generating structures of the brain.