Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 16, 2026
Simultaneous Recording of Electroretinography and Visual Evoked Potentials in Anesthetized Rats
Published on: July 1, 2016
Beyond the snellen chart: exploring the clinical potential of sweep visual evoked potentials for visual acuity
Asma Hermas1,2, Michael Dollin3,4,5, Rustum Karanjia3,4,5
1Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Regenerative Medicine Program, Ottawa, ON, Canada. aaaihay@gmail.com.
Purpose:
To evaluate the agreement between Snellen visual acuity (VA) and sweep visual evoked potential (sVEP) VA in individuals with normal vision and assess sVEP variability and reproducibility across multiple test sessions.
Methods:
Thirty-nine healthy participants (78 eyes) underwent Snellen and sVEP VA testing. Ten participants (20 eyes) also underwent sVEP testing twice daily (morning and afternoon) on three separate days (120 total recordings). and Snellen VA measurements showed strong agreement, with a mean absolute difference of 0.03 LogMAR (less than one Snellen line). Forty of 78 eyes had differences within one Snellen line, while the largest discrepancy reached four lines. Statistical analysis (P = 0.201) indicated no significant difference between the two methods. sVEP reproducibility was also high, with no significant variation between morning and afternoon recordings (P = 0.67), confirming its stability as a clinical tool.
Conclusion:
sVEP provides objective and reproducible VA measurements comparable to Snellen VA, suggesting its potential as an alternative clinical assessment tool, particularly for patients with communication challenges, cognitive impairments, or suspected malingering vision loss.
