[Correlative neuropsychology & neurobiology by evoked potentials in central nervous aging process (author's transl)]

Evoked potentials (VEP, SEP) in 40 elderly patients, who were in different states of vitality and aged from 71 to 95, were recorded and analysed. Specific neuronal activity of the cortex on the one hand and neuropsychological and clinical parameters on the other hand should be correlated. No correlation between SEP and the results of neuropsychological assessment had been suggested, and there was not any. Regular VEP correlate significantly with both, prompt time of reaction and a good psychological performance in the reduced Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). The results do not provide a neurophysiological parameter of intellectual faculties. Regular VEP and SEP, however, mean that the visual and somatosensory cortex and subcortex has not been impaired to any extent. In other words normal VEP and SEP suggest normal mental and motor ability. This, "state of vitality" and neurobiological items as "mental flexibility" and "sensomotor flexibility" operationalised and defined may be related to recorded function of the neuron, respectively. Basically, the results seem to confirm that a specific optimated process, which has been succeeded in a human ecological relation between "activity and performance", and intact neuronal function does appear, even if the primary spectrum of adaption that is caused by aging might be narrowed and easy to be disturbed altogether.