The effect of motion on pattern-onset visual evoked potentials in adults and children

Visual evoked potentials can be elicited by a variety of visual stimuli, including pattern-onset and motion-onset. It may be desirable to combine pattern-onset with motion-onset stimuli, for example, to make a direct comparison between optokinetic nystagmus and visual evoked potential acuity thresholds. Both procedures employ grating stimuli; however, the gratings must be moving to produce optokinetic nystagmus. We compared pattern-onset visual evoked potentials with both a static and a moving pattern to investigate the effect of motion on the pattern-onset visual evoked potential waveform. Visual evoked potential recordings were made from 10 adults (aged 20-37 years) and 10 children (aged 5-7 years) with the active electrode at Oz. Stimuli consisted of onset of high-contrast vertical bars of three sizes (12', 30' and 60') both with and without motion (3 cycles/s). In a subgroup of subjects, visual evoked potentials were recorded to motion onset of constantly present gratings. Motion of the pattern had no significant effect on any of the latency components of the visual evoked potential waveform in adults or children. The amplitude of the C2-C3 component was significantly increased (p < 0.001) in adults. The motion appears to add a late negative component to the visual evoked potential similar to that produced by the motion-only stimulus. The latency of the early components of the pattern-onset visual evoked potential was unaffected by the presence of motion. Therefore, pattern-onset visual evoked potentials with moving gratings could be used to estimate visual acuity, and direct comparisons could be made between visual evoked potential and optokinetic nystagmus acuity thresholds with the use of the same stimulus parameters.