title: Cone contrast influence on components of the pattern onset/offset VECP.
abstract: Transient visual evoked cortical potentials (VECP) were recorded from the scalp of healthy normal trichromats (n = 12). VECPs were elicited by onset/offset presentation of patterned stimuli of two kinds: isochromatic luminance-modulated, and equiluminant red-green modulated, sine wave gratings. The amplitude and latency of the major onset components of the onset/offset VECP were measured and plotted as a function of the logarithm of pooled cone contrast. The early onset components, achromatic C1 and chromatic N1, increase linearly with log contrast, but N1 has a higher contrast gain than C1. The late onset components, achromatic C2 and chromatic N2, have similar contrast gain, and similar response as a function of contrast level: both increase in the low-to-medium range of contrasts and saturate at high contrast levels. In the range of pooled cone contrast tested, C1 and N1 show similar latencies, whilst C2 shows shorter latencies than N2. We suggest that C1 and N1 are generated by the same visual mechanism with high red-green contrast gain and low luminance contrast gain, whilst C2 and N2 are generated by different visual mechanisms.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, PA, Brazil. brunodgomes@ufpa.br
authors.forename: B D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Gomes
authors.forename: G S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Souza
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: da Silva Filho
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
authors.forename: D F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Ventura
authors.forename: L C L
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Silveira
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity / Q000502:physiology*; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011601:Psychophysics; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D017949:Retinal Cone Photoreceptor Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult