Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 1981, 5 1 : 5 5 9 - - 5 6 2
© Elsevier/North-Holland Scientific Publishers, Ltd.
Clinical note
AGE-RELATED CHANGES IN THE LATENCY OF THE VISUAL EVOKED POTENTIAL:
INFLUENCE OF CHECK SIZE 1
S. S O K O L , A. M O S K O W I T Z and V.L. T O W L E
Department of Ophthalmology, New England Medical Center and Tufts University School of Medicine, 171
Harrison Ave., Boston, Mass. 02111 (U.S.A.)
( A c c e p t e d for publication: January 23, 1981)
With the increasing use of the peak latency of the
first major positive c o m p o n e n t (P1) of the pattern
reversal visual evoked potential (VEP) as a clinical
tool, the question of changes in latency as a f u n c t i o n
of non-pathological factors such as aging b e c o m e s
particularly i m p o r t a n t . In general, PI latency inereases
with age, but the dynamics of this increase have n o t
been entirely resolved. F o r e x a m p l e , Asselman et al.
(1975) and Hennerici et al. (1977) did n o t find any
latency increase until after 60---65 years of age. On
the o t h e r hand, Celesia and Daly (1977) f o u n d a sig-
nificant increase beginning at 20 years of age. Shaw
and Cant (1980) r e p o r t e d that the increase was
d e p e n d e n t on the l u m i n a n c e level o f the pattern sti-
mulus; at high p h o t o p i c l u m i n a n c e levels there was
little effect of age on latency while at low p h o t o p i c
l u m i n a n c e levels latency increased significantly for
subjects over 50 years o f age.
A major factor that has been o v e r l o o k e d in the
study of the effect of age on VEP latency and may, in
part, explain these discrepancies is the size of the
checks used to elicit the VEPs. For example, Assel-
maff et al. (1975), Hennerici et al. (1977), and Shaw
and Cant (1980) used checks larger than 50 min of
arc, while Celesia and Daly (1977) used small (15.5
min o f arc) checks. This is an i m p o r t a n t consideration
because for age-matched visually normal subjects
latency varies as a f u n c t i o n of spatial frequency.
Middle and high spatial f r e q u e n c y patterns (either
small checks or fine gratings) elicit longer latency
VEPs (including P1) than low spatial f r e q u e n c y pat-
terns (large checks or coarse gratings), an effect which
occurs for both infants and adults (Parker and Salzen,
1977a, b; J o n e s and K e c k 1978; S o k o l and J o n e s
1979; Sokol and M o s k o w i t z 1981). It has been pro-
posed that these latency differences reflect the pro-
cessing of different spatial f r e q u e n c y channels in the
h u m a n visual system.
1 This research was s u p p o r t e d by NEI Research Grant
E Y 0 0 9 2 6 to S.S.
559
We have measured the latency of the first major
positive wave (P1) of the pattern reversal VEP in 125
visually normal subjects ranging in age f r o m 13 to 82
years. We have used b o t h small (12 min of arc) and
large (48 min of arc) checks to d e t e r m i n e if there is
any difference in the rate of latency change with age
as a f u n c t i o n of check size.
Method
One h u n d r e d and twenty-five visually normal sub-
jects ranging in age f r o m 13 to 82 years (mean = 43
years) were tested. All subjects over 50 years of age
received an o p h t h a l m i c e x a m i n a t i o n which included
m e a s u r e m e n t of visual acuity and intraocular pres-
sures, and visual field testing using a G o l d m a n n
perimeter; n o n e had eye p a t h o l o g y and each subject's
visual acuity was 20/30 or better. A l t h o u g h only a
few of the subjects under 50 years of age had com-
plete eye exams, n o n e r e p o r t e d any history of eye
disease and their visual acuity was 2 0 / 2 0 or better.
Checkerboard pattern stimuli were generated by a
black and white TV m o n i t o r . T w o check sizes, 12 and
48 min of arc, were used. The field size o f the screen
was 9.5 by 12 °, the m e a n l u m i n a n c e of the screen
was 1.90 log c d / m 2 and contrast was 0.84. The
checks were reversed at 2 alternations/sec and the
analysis t i m e was 410 msec. VEPs were r e c o r d e d
f r o m an E E G gold disc electrode a t t a c h e d to the scalp
1 cm anterior to the inion along the midline; one ear
served as reference and the o t h e r served as ground.
All subjects sat in a dark shielded r o o m at a table
with a chin rest and viewed the c h e c k e r b o a r d pattern
f r o m a distance of 1 m. Signals were fed into a pre-
amplifier with bandpass settings o f 1 and 35 c/sec. The
amplified signals were averaged by a m i n i c o m p u t e r .
Either 64 or 128 a c c u m u l a t i o n s were stored on a
F l o p p y diskette for later retrieval and m e a s u r e m e n t
of peak latencies. The peak latency of the first major
positive wave (P1) was measured with a software pro-
gram which allowed the o p e r a t o r to place a cursor at
560 S. S O K O L E T AL.

a n y p o i n t o n t h e oscilloscope screen w h i c h d i s p l a y e d 12' 48'

t h e V E P . T h e r e s o l u t i o n o f t h i s p r o g r a m was a c c u r a t e 105.5 ms
i09.0 ms Age
t o w i t h i n 4 0 0 #sec. /~/ (yrs)

Results 115.8 ms I10.0 mS

Fig. 1 s h o w s V E P r e c o r d s for 12 a n d 48 m i n c h e c k s
o b t a i n e d f r o m 3 s u b j e c t s aged 25, 47 a n d 71 years,
respectively. T h e p e a k l a t e n c y o f Pz was longer for 12
m i n c h e c k s t h a n 48 m i n c h e c k s for each subject. This
was t r u e for 117 of t h e 125 'subjects t e s t e d , t h e
largest d i f f e r e n c e b e i n g 27.5 msec. T h e r e m a i n i n g 8
s u b j e c t s h a d longer P1 l a t e n c i e s for 48 m i n checks,
t h e largest d i f f e r e n c e being 5.1 msec. Fig. 1 also
s h o w s a gradual increase w i t h age in t h e P1 l a t e n c y
for b o t h 12 a n d 4 8 m i n checks.
T h i s l a t e n c y increase is even m o r e e v i d e n t in Fig. 2,
w h i c h d e p i c t s Pz l a t e n c y for 12 a n d 4 8 rain c h e c k s as
a f u n c t i o n o f age for all s u b j e c t s tested. Since t h e
d a t a f r o m t h e r i g h t a n d left eye of o n e s u b j e c t are n o t
i n d e p e n d e n t o b s e r v a t i o n s ( E d e r e r 1 9 7 3 ) , each d a t a
t27.6 ms 118.5 rns
+ ~/ room+-
Fig. 1. V E P records for 12 rain (left) and 48 rain
(right) checks obtained from 3 subjects, 25, 47 and
71 years of age. Pz latency (msec) is given for each
wave form.
point in Fig. 2 is the mean latency of the right and
left eye of each subject. Regression lines were fit to
the data for each check size using a least-squares

140
i
48' 12' 0

0
135
o
o
o 8o o
o oo
o
o 0 o o o O J
~¢,~ 125 o o ~ ° o
o o oO °o~.~ o °
o oDo o o o
> . 12o
o ~ ~ _ oo
115 ,..P oooo ..oO+/>/o0
~ o
o

110
.%e% ~ ..o • • 0 O~ 0 0 ........... ~

0 0 0~..@,. -- ~ " 0
105 • oql°~ " ~ "0"0~ O0 0 0
~ 0 0
.....-.--c'~ °O ~ °'% °
• ~ •
o°el •
o•

95

90

10 20 30 4 50 70 80 1 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

AGE(years)
Fig. 2. PI latency (msec) for 12 min (open circles) and 48 rain (closed circles)checks as a function of age. Each
•data point is the m e a n latency of the right and left eye of each subject. Regression lines were fit to the data for
each check size using a least-squares linear regression procedure. For 12 rain checks, y = 0.26x + 105.6; for 48
rnin checks, y = 0.14x + 101.8. For ease of comparison the regression line for 48 rain checks has also been plotted
as a dashed line on the 12 rain graph.
AGE-RELATED VEP LATENCY CHANGES
linear regression p r o c e d u r e ( H e l w i g a n d C o u n c i l
1 9 7 9 ) . T h e regressions were statistically s i g n i f i c a n t
for b o t h c h e c k sizes ( 1 2 rain: F = 72.9, P < 0 . 0 0 0 1 ,
r=0.61; 48 min: F=24.9, P< 0.0001, r=0.41).
T h e e q u a t i o n s for t h e s e lines were y = 0 . 2 6 x + 1 0 5 . 6
for 12 m i n c h e c k s a n d y = 0 . 1 4 x + 1 0 1 . 8 for 4 8 m i n
checks. As s h o w n b y t h e e q u a t i o n s , t h e slope for 12
m i n c h e c k s ( 0 . 2 6 ) is nearly t w i c e as s t e e p as t h a t for
48 min checks (0.14). The difference between the
slopes o f t h e t w o regression lines was statistically sig-
n i f i c a n t ( t = 3.16, P < 0.01, d f = 246).
Discussion
These results confirm previous reports that P1
latency increases with age. In agreement with Celesia
and Daly (1977) the increase begins at about 20 years
of age. Not previously reported is our finding that
there is a more rapid increase in latency for small
checks (12 min) than for large checks (48 min). This
is seen in the significantly steeper slope of the regres-
sion line for 12 rain checks.
A number of optical, neural and biochemical con-
tributions have been proposed to account for the
changes in visual function with increasing age (Weale
1963; Ordy and Brizzee 1979). A major optical factor
is senile miosis. Pupil diameter under low photopic
conditions decreases with age, from an average of 5.0
m m at 20 years to 3.0 m m at 80 years (Corso 1971).
A reduction in pupil size decreases retinal illuminance
which in turn causes PI latency to increase. While this
increase in miosis m a y have contributed to our results,
the effect was probably small. First, we have previ-
ously found that decreases in pupil size equally pro-
long the latency for 12 and 48 rain checks (Sokol et
al. 1981); however, in the present study we found an
unequal increase in latency. Secondly, under our
luminance conditions the pupil size for our subjects
ranged from 5.0 m m at 20 years to 3.5 m m at 80
years. This decrease in pupil diameter results in a
0.30 log unit decrease in retinal illuminance which
would cause an increase in latency of approximately
6 msec for both 12 and 48 rain checks, an amount
not large enough to completely account for our find-
ings (Sokol et al. 1981).
There is increasing evidence for the hypothesis
that neural and biochemical factors contribute more
to age-related changes in visual function than optical
factors. Thus, increase in latency for both 12 and 48
rain checks probably arises from a number of differ-
ent sources along the retino-geniculate-striate path-
ways. In the retina of older individuals, there is
degeneration of the ganglion cells (Varbec 1965) and
alterations in the outer nuclear layer at the level of
the macula (Gartner and Henkind 1980). There are
also reports that there is a diminution of axons in the
561
optic nerve (Dolman et al. 1980) and changes in the
biochemical nature and cytoarchitecture of the lateral
geniculate and occipital cortex (see Ordy and Brizzee
1979 for recent review).
W e believe that the different rate of change in PI
latency between small and large checks as a function
of age reflects a differentialchange in the capacity of
the h u m a n visual system to process spatial frequency
information. Recent psychophysical studies of con-
trast sensitivity in young and old individuals also
demonstrated differential changes in visual function
along the spatial frequency dimension. For example,
there is a greater decline in sensitivity at the low and
middle spatial frequencies (the range covered by our
check sizes) than at high spatial frequencies, where
there is little difference between young and old sub-
jects (Derefeldt et al. 1979; Sekular and H u t m a n
1980). Whether there is a direct connection between
the changes in the pattern V E P and psychophysically
determined contrast sensitivity remains to be deter-
mined.
The practical implication of these findings for the
clinical use of the pattern V E P is that when small
checks are used careful attention must be given to the
age of the control norms. Since V E P latency increases
more rapidly with age for small checks, stratification
of norms according to age should be employed.
Summary
Pattern reversal visual evoked potentials were
recorded from 125 visually normal adults-between 10
and 80 years of age. T w o check sizes, 12 and 48 min,
were used. The results showed that the latency of the
firstmajor positive component, P I, increased with age
for both check sizes. This rate of increase was nearly
twice as fast for 12 rain checks. This difference is
most likely a reflection of the differential effects of
aging processes on the various spatial frequency chan-
nels in the h u m a n visual system.
Rdsum~
Modifications lides d l'dge, de la latence du potentiel
dvoqud visuel: influence de la taille du damier
Les potentiels ~voqu~s visuels fi l'inversion d'un
damier ont ~t~ enregistr~s chez 125 sujets ~ vision
normale ages de 10 d 80 ans. Deux taiUes de damier,
de 12 et 48', ont ~t~ utilis~es. Les rdsultats mon-
trent que la latence de la premiere composante posi-
tive majeure, PI, augmente avec l'~ge pour les deux
tailles de damier. La vitesse d'accroissement est pres-
que deux fois plus rapide pour les damiers de 12'.
Cette difference est tr~s vraisemblablement un reflet
562
des effets diff6rentiels des processus de vieillissement
sur les diff6rents canaux de fr6quence spatiale dans le
syst~me visuel humain.
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