Ongoing occipital rhythms and the VER. I. Stimulation at peaks of the alpha-rhythm

As a first step toward determining the source of variability in the visually evoked response (VER) between subjects, we have examined the relationships between the VER and the alpha-rhythm. This was done by comparing the VER's to photic stimuli delivered at positive and negative peaks of the alpha-rhythm (alpha-synchronized stimuli) with VER's to flashes delivered at a fixed interval, unsynchronized with the alpha-rhythm. Average VER's for the three classes of stimuli were calcuated for each of ten subjects. In addition, a grand average VER (GVVER) WAS CALCULATED FOR EACH STIMULUS CLASS BY AVERAGING THE INDIVIDUAL AVERAGE VER's. Quantitative comparisons between GVER's were made using cross- correlograms. Cross-correlograms were calculated between each of the GVER's, and between the GVER's to alpha-synchronized stimulation and their controls. These data show that the first 120 msec. poststimulus interval of the Gver's to alpha-synchronized stimulation are highly correlated with the prestimulus alpha- rhythm. The data also show a component occurring in al GVER's which is independent of the alpha-rhythm. This component begins 120 msec. After stimulation, reaches peak amplitude at 200 msec, and decays to baseline at 240 msec. Thses findings suggest that much of the variability in VER recordings may be due to alpha-activity which has been insufficiently attenuated by averaging.