[Retinal and cortical electrical activity in man: physiologic bases and clinical applications]

Noninvasive electrophysiological recordings allow to investigate various stages of human visual information processing separately. Luminance and pattern electroretinograms (ERG) contain components originating from anatomically and physiologically different retinal structures while visual evoked potentials (VEP) reflect activity in more central parts of the visual system. Simultaneous recordings of ERGs and VEPs to carefully selected visual stimuli help to relate physiological processes to neural structures, and thus may be employed as an important tool also in clinical investigations. Corresponding experimental data from both basic physiological research as well as from clinical studies are reviewed.