The dark trough in clinical electro-oculography. Influence of preadaptation on amplitudes and latencies

The influence of four different intensities of the preadapting light on amplitude and implicit time of the dark-induced oscillation (dark trough) of the electro-oculogram was tested in 10 healthy individuals. The amplitude of the dark trough (normalized to preadapting baseline) was found to be dependent on the intensity of the preadapting light (analysis of variance: p < 0.0001). No correlation could be proven between preadapting light intensity and the implicit time of the dark trough (p = 0.299). The confidence intervals of the implicit time of the dark trough exceeded 14 minutes in all four intensity settings. There was no significant dependence of the absolute baseline values on preadapting intensities (p = 0.236).