Correspondences in the Behavior of the Electroretinogram and of the Potentials Evoked at the Visual Cortex

Abstract

Electrical potentials from the eye (ERG) and from the contralateral visual cortex were recorded in response to flashes of white and of colored light of various intensities and durations. The evoked potentials were found to parallel the behavior of the ERG in several significant respects. Selective changes in the ERG brought about by increasing the light intensity and by light adaptation led to parallel selective changes in the cortical responses. The dual waves (b1, b2) of the ERG were found to have counterparts in two cortical waves (c1, c2) which, in respect to changes in light intensity and to light adaptation, behaved analogously to the two retinal components. The responses evoked at high intensity showed only the diphasic c1-potential. As stimulus intensity was lowered the c1-wave decreased in magnitude and a delayed c2-component appeared. The c2-potential increased in amplitude as light intensity of the flash was further reduced. Eventually the c2-wave, too, decreased as stimulus reduction continued. There was no wave length specificity in regard to either the duplex b-waves or duplex cortical waves. Both appeared at all wave lengths from 454 mµ to 630 mµ. The two cortical waves evoked by brief flashes of colored light showed all the behavior to changes in stimulus intensity and to light adaptation that occurred with white light.