title: Timing of early activity in the visual cortex as revealed by simultaneous MEG and ERG recordings.
abstract: To clarify the latency of the earliest cortical activity in visual processing, electroretinograms (ERGs) and visual evoked magnetic fields (VEFs) following flash stimulation were recorded simultaneously in six human subjects. Flash stimuli were applied to the right eye and ERGs were recorded from a skin electrode placed on the lower lid. ERGs showed two major deflections in all subjects: an eyelid-negativity around 20 ms and a positivity around 60 ms corresponding to an a- and b-waves, respectively. The mean onset and peak latency of the earliest component of VEFs (37 M) was 30.2 and 36.9 ms, respectively. There was a linear correlation between the peak latency of the a-wave and the onset latency of the 37 M (r=0.90, P=0.011). When a single equivalent current dipole analysis was applied to the 37 M, four out of six subjects showed highly reliable results. The generator of the 37 M was estimated to be located in the striate cortex in all four subjects. Since post-receptoral activities in the retina are expected to start around the peak of the a-wave (20 ms), the early cortical activity, which appears 10 ms later than the a-wave peak, is considered to be the earliest cortical activity following flash stimulation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Physiology, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Okazaki, Japan. inui@nips.ac.jp
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Inui
authors.forename: Hiromi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sannan
authors.forename: Kensaku
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Miki
authors.forename: Yoshiki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kaneoke
authors.forename: Ryusuke
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kakigi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004596:Electroretinography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D015225:Magnetoencephalography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012016:Reference Values; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013997:Time Factors; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*