Subdurally recorded pattern and luminance EPs in the alert rhesus monkey

Two rhesus monkeys Macaca mulatta were trained to fixate a TV screen on which checkerboard and bar patterns could be presented. Stainless steel skull electrodes and electrode bundles under the dura, each containing 7 leads permitting 7 recording sites at 5 mm intervals, were placed over the temporal-occipital cortex and used to obtain visually evoked potentials (VEPs). The following conclusions were reached: VEPs recorded with skull electrodes resemble scalp recorded VEPs. Subdural electrodes may yield larger VEP amplitudes than skull or scalp electrodes. Subdural VEPs vary more in shape with recording site than scalp or skull recorded VEPs. Apart from differences in shape there are topographical differences between luminance and pattern EPs; the luminance EP is localized near the occiput and the pattern EP is most pronounced at the temporal site overlying the foveal projection area. For a given recording site it can be seen that: (a) the amplitude of the pattern reversal EP is smaller than that of the pattern onset EEP : (b) the shape of the reversal EP resembles the pattern offset EP; and (c) the shape of the pattern onset EP rather invariant to check size and bar width. On the basis of the pattern EP the striate and prestriate cortical areas can be distinguished as follows: (a) the prestriate cortex yields a positive-negative-positive (PNP) response complex to pattern onset and the striate cortex a PN response complex; and (b) the striate cortex responds to finer patterns than the prestriate cortex.