Visual evoked potentials and magnocellular and parvocellular segregation

Abstract

We have measured visual evoked potentials (VEPs) to luminance-modulated, square-wave alternating, 3-deg homogeneous disks for stimulus frequencies ranging from 1 Hz to 16.7 Hz. The aim of the study was to determine the range of frequencies at which we could reproduce the two-branched contrast-response (C-R) curves we had seen at 1 Hz (Valberg & Rudvin, 1997) and which we interpreted as magnocellular (MC) and parvocellular (PC) segregation. Low-contrast stimuli elicited relatively simple responses to luminance increments resulting in waveforms that may be the signatures of inputs from magnocellular channels to the visual cortex. At all frequencies, the C-R curves of the main waveforms were characterized by a steep slope at low contrasts and a leveling off at 10%–20% Michelson contrast. This was typically followed by an abrupt increase in slope at higher contrasts, giving a distinctive two-branched C-R curve. On the assumption that the low-contrast, high-gain branch reflects the responsivity of magnocellular-pathway inputs to the cortex, the high-contrast branch may be attributed to additional parvocellular activation. While a two-branched curve was maintained for frequencies up to 8 Hz, the high-contrast response was significantly compromised at 16.7 Hz, revealing a differential low-pass filtering. A model decomposing the measured VEP response into two separate C-R curves yielded a difference in sensitivity of the putative MC- and PC-mediated response that, when plotted as a function of frequency, followed a trend similar to that found for single cells. Due to temporal overlap of responses, the MC and PC contributions to the waveforms were hard to distinguish in the transient VEP. However, curves of time-to-peak (delay) as a function of contrast often went through a minimum before the high-contrast gain increase of the corresponding C-R curve, supporting the notion of a recruitment of new cell ensembles in the transition from low to high contrasts.