VEP in neglect patients have longer latencies for luminance but not for chromatic patterns

Abstract

In patients with unilateral neglect, visual evoked potentials (VEP) to stimuli displayed in the left visual field are delayed compared with responses to right visual field stimuli. In the present study, 10 patients with right brain damage and neglect were tested with contrast-reversed sinusoidal gratings, modulated either in luminance or in chromaticity. For gratings of luminance contrast modulated over relatively high temporal frequencies (4-10.5 Hz), latencies of VEP were about 30 ms longer for stimuli presented to the contralesional (left) visual field than to the field ipsilateral to the lesion. For equiluminant stimuli modulated at relatively low temporal frequencies (1-4 Hz), however, latency was the same for both hemifields. As this condition activates predominately the parvocellular pathway the results are consistent with our previous suggestion that the delay observed with luminance stimuli in neglect patients results from selective disruption of the faster response of the magnocellular pathway.