Colour-Black Pattern Reversal Visual Evoked Potentials (Colour-Black-Pveps): Neurobiological Aspects and Clinical Applicability of a New Method

Abstract

The new method of Colour-Black-PVEPs was applied to 67 healthy subjects with normal colour vision who were subdivided into age groups (= AG) I (N = 40: 18–30 years) and AG II (N = 27: 31–60 years): 1. For the N80-, P100- latencies and the N80P100-amplitudes of all Colour-Black-PVEPs we obtained age-, sex- and eye-matched normative data.

2. The female subjects of AG I showed shorter (p ≦ 0.05 resp. 0.002) P100-latencies and higher (p ≦ 0.02 resp. 0.0001) N80P100-amplitudes in the Colour-Black-PVEPs than the male subjects. In AG II, however, the Colour-Black-PVEPs did not show any more sex-differences for the P100-latencies, whereas the N80P100-amplitudes remained significantly higher for the females. 3. In the Colour-Black-PVEPs the N80- and P100-latencies did not reveal age-dependent changes. The N80P100-amplitudes, however, decreased with increasing age, but this was significant for the females only. 4. The head sizes, although decreasing with age, were in both age groups significant smaller for the females. Therefore, head size alone could not fully explain the sex-differences in the Colour-Black-PVEPs and their age-dependent changes. 5. In both age groups, the N80–and P100-latencies increased significantly for both sexes from the Green-Black- and Red-Black-PVEPs to the Blue-Black-PVEPs. The N80P100-amplitudes decreased in the same sequence.–This method may become a valuable tool in the investigation of neurophysiological and ophthalmoneurological aspects of human colour vision.

Key Words:

• visual evoked potentials
• pattern reversal
• clinical applicability
• colour vision