Effects of stimulus orientation on spatial frequency function of the visual evoked potential

Visual performance is better in response to vertical and horizontal stimuli than oblique ones in many visual tasks; this is called the orientation effect. In order to elucidate the electrophysiological basis of this psychophysical effect, we studied the effects of stimulus orientation on the amplitudes and latencies of visual evoked potentials (VEPs) over different spatial frequencies of the visual stimulation. VEPs to sinusoidal gratings at four orientations (vertical, horizontal, and oblique at 45 degrees and 135 degrees) with eight spatial frequencies (0.5-10.7 cycles/deg) at reversal rates of 1 Hz and 4 Hz were recorded in nine subjects. At 1-Hz stimulation, the amplitude and latency of P100 were measured. At 4-Hz stimulation, VEPs were Fourier-analyzed to obtain phase and amplitude of the second harmonic response (2F). At 1-Hz stimulation, P100 latencies were decreased for oblique stimuli compared with those for horizontal and vertical stimuli at lower spatial frequencies. Conversely, those for oblique stimuli were increased compared with those for horizontal and vertical stimuli at higher spatial frequencies. At 4-Hz stimulation, spatial tuning observed in 2F amplitude of the oblique gratings shifted to lower spatial frequencies when compared with those of vertical stimulation. The alteration of the VEP spatial frequency function caused by the oblique stimuli was in good agreement with the orientation effect observed in psychophysical studies. Our study may have a clinical implication in that VEP testing with stimuli in more than one orientation at slow and fast temporal modulations can be useful in evaluating neurological disease affecting the visual system.