Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 30, 2025
Dynamic Visual Tests to Identify and Quantify Visual Damage and Repair Following Demyelination in Optic Neuritis Patients
Published on: April 14, 2014
Individual differences in visual evoked potential latency are associated with variance in brain tissue volume in
Thomas J Covey1, Daniel Golan2, Myassar Zarif3
1Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurosciences, Department of Neurology, Neuroscience Program, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo, Sherman Hall Annex Room 114, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA.
Abstract:
Visual evoked potentials (VEP) index visual pathway functioning, and are often used for clinical assessment and as outcome measures in people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS). VEPs may also reflect broader neural disturbances that extend beyond the visual system, but this possibility requires further investigation. In the present study, we examined the hypothesis that delayed latency of the P100 component of the VEP would be associated with broader structural changes in the brain in PwMS. We obtained VEP latency for a standard pattern-reversal checkerboard stimulus paradigm, in addition to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) measures of whole brain volume (WBV), gray matter volume (GMV), white matter volume (WMV), and T2-weighted fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) white matter lesion volume (FLV). Correlation analyses indicated that prolonged VEP latency was significantly associated with lower WBV, GMV, and WMV, and greater FLV. VEP latency remained significantly associated with WBV, GMV, and WMV even after controlling for the variance associated with inter-ocular latency, age, time between VEP and MRI assessments, and other MRI variables. VEP latency delays were most pronounced in PwMS that exhibited low volume in both white and gray matter simultaneously. Furthermore, PwMS that had delayed VEP latency based on a clinically relevant cutoff (VEP latency ≥ 113 ms) in both eyes had lower WBV, GMV, and WMV and greater FLV in comparison to PwMS that had normal VEP latency in one or both eyes. The findings suggest that PwMS that have delayed latency in both eyes may be particularly at risk for exhibiting greater brain atrophy and lesion volume. These analyses also indicate that VEP latency may index combined gray matter and white matter disturbances, and therefore broader network connectivity and efficiency. VEP latency may therefore provide a surrogate marker of broader structural disturbances in the brain in MS.
