Relationship between the Binary Kernels of Visually Evoked Potentials and the Visual Responses on the Magnocellular and Parvocellular Pathways

Summary

Objectives : To investigate the nonlinear characteristics of visual evoked potentials (VEPs), and their correlation with the visual responses on parvocellular and magnocellular pathways. First and second-order kernels of the VEPs elicited by several checkerboard patterns were estimated, and their relations to the visual pathway responses were investigated.

Methods : VEPs elicited by checkerboard pattern (0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 c/d) alternating based on pseudorandom binary sequence were measured, and thei binary kernels were calculated. First and second-order binary kernels were compared with amplitudes o the steady-state VEPs (S-VEPs) to pattern reversal stimulation with a constant temporal frequency (4, 8, 12, 16, and 32 Hz).

Results : Positive peak latencies at 150 ms (P150) of second-order first and second slices were correlated with S-VEP amplitude for higher temporal frequencies, indicating that the first and second slices reflect the response of the magnocellular. However, for second and third slices, their amplitudes were partially correlated with 4-16 Hz S-VEP, and this indicated that the second slice contains both magno- and parvocellular pathway responses. P150 latencies of third slices were correlated with S-VEP for lower temporal frequencies, indicating that third slice reflects the response of the parvocellular pathway.

Conclusions : The lower slices of second-order binary kernels reflect the response of the magnocellular pathway and the higher slices reflect those on the parvocellular pathway in the human visual system of VEPs.

Keywords

Visually evoked potentials - PRBS - binary kernel - visual pathway - magnocellular - parvocellular

• References

• 1. Marmarelis PD, Marmarelis V. Analysis of physiological systems. New York: Plenum Press; 1978
• 2. Sutter EE. A deterministic approach to nonlinear systems analysis. In: Pinter RB, Nabet B Nonlinear Vision: CRC Press; 1992: 171-220.
• 3. Sutter EE, Tran D. The field topography of ERG components in man -1. The photopic luminance response. Vision Res 1992; 32: 433-446.
• 4. Srebro R. An analysis of the VEP to luminance modulation and of its nonlinearity. Vision Res 1992; 32: 1395-1404.
• 5. Alan DC, Bharat BS. Pseudorandom binary sequence stimulation applied to the visual evoked response - normative data and a comparative study with pattern and flash stimulation. Doc Ophthalmol 1993; 83: 163-173.
• 6. Momose K, Komiya K, Uchiyama A. Nonlinear analysis of visual evoked potential elicited by color stimulation. Methods Inf Med 1997; 36: 315-318.
• 7. Klistorner A, Crewther DP, Crewther SG. Separate magnocellular and parvocellular contribu tions from temporal analysis of the multifocal VEP. Vision Res 1997; 37: 2161-2169.
• 8. Momose K. Extraction of color response from visual evoked potentials using the binary kernel method. IEICE Trans on Info & Sys 1998; E81- D: 124-131.
• 9. Klistorner A, Graham SL. Early magnocellular loss in glaucoma demonstrated using the pseudorandomly stimulated flash visual evoked potential. J Glaucoma 1999; 8: 140-148.
• 10. Graham SL, Klistorner A, Grigg JR, Billson FA. Objective VEP perimetry in glaucoma: asymmetry analysis to identify early deficits. J Glaucoma 2000; 9: 10-19.
• 11. Momose K, Kasahara S. Nonlinear characteristics of visual evoked potential and their correlation with the visual responses on magnocellular and parvocellular pathways. In: Proceedings of the 25th Annual International Conference of the IEEE EMBS; Sep 17-21,2003; Cancun, Mexico. p 784
• 12. Quigley HA, Sanchez RM., Dunkelburger GR, Henaut NL, Baginski TA. Chronic glaucoma selectively damages large optic nerve fibers. Invest Ophathalmol Vis Sci 1987; 28: 913-918.
• 13. Schmeisser ET, Smith TJ. High-frequency flicker visual evoked potential losses in glaucoma. Ophthalmology 1989; 96: 620-623.
• 14. Sutter EE. The fast m-transform: a fast computation of cross-correlation with binary m- sequences. SIAM J Comput 1991; 20: 689-694.
• 15. Robson JG. Spatial and temporal contrast sensitivity functions of the visual system. J Opt Soc Am 1966; 56: 1141-1142.