Developmental and aging changes in somatosensory, auditory and visual evoked potentials.

To assess developmental and aging changes in human sensory systems, components of short-latency somatosensory, brain-stem auditory and pattern-reversal visual evoked potentials, thought to originate in specific structures of these systems, were recorded in 286 normal subjects ranging in age from 4 to 95 years. Analysis was primarily restricted to peak and interpeak latencies; visual evoked potential amplitudes were also analyzed. Major results and conclusions are: (1) 'Developmental' changes (that is, decreases in latency attributable to decreased conduction time in younger subjects) were not seen in the median nerve, in brain-stem auditory pathways, or in some portions of visual cortex. Small developmental changes were seen in the somatosensory afferent pathway from the cervical spinal cord to thalamus, and large changes were seen in somatosensory and visual cortex. Cortical developmental changes appeared not to be complete until 17 years of age or later. (2) 'Aging' changes (that is, increases in latency attributable to increased conduction time in older subjects) were observed in the median nerve, cervical spinal cord, brain-stem auditory pathways, and somatosensory and visual cortex. (3) Visual evoked potential amplitudes tended to decrease with age, particularly during development; amplitude and latency effects were dissimilar for most components. (4) Males tended to show larger aging effects than females. (5) The results suggest that age-related changes in human sensory systems are not uniform, but rather are different in specific portions of these systems, different at particular epochs of the life span, and stronger in males than in females.

[1]  S. Jones.  Short latency potentials recorded from the neck and scalp following median nerve stimulation in man. , 1977, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[2]  P. Yakovlev,et al.  The myelogenetic cycles of regional maturation of the brain , 1967 .

[3]  A. Møller,et al.  Intracranially recorded responses from the human auditory nerve: new insights into the origin of brain stem evoked potentials (BSEPs). , 1981, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[4]  T. Allison,et al.  A comparative analysis of short-latency somatosensory evoked potentials in man, monkey, cat, and rat , 1981, Experimental Neurology.

[5]  K. Yoshida,et al.  The projection from the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus to extrastriate visual association cortex in the macaque monkey , 1981, Neuroscience Letters.

[6]  J Kimura,et al.  Short latency somatosensory evoked potentials following median nerve stimulation in man. , 1980, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[7]  Y Ishiyama,et al.  Brain-stem auditory-evoked potentials recorded directly from human brain-stem and thalamus. , 1981, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[8]  H. Loos,et al.  Synaptogenesis in human visual cortex — evidence for synapse elimination during normal development , 1982, Neuroscience Letters.

[9]  A. Møller,et al.  Evoked potentials from the inferior colliculus in man. , 1982, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[10]  C. Shagass.  Evoked Brain Potentials in Psychiatry , 1972, Springer US.

[11]  C. C. Wood,et al.  Short-latency somatosensory evoked potentials in man, monkey, cat, and rat: comparative latency analysis. , 1982, Advances in neurology.

[12]  N. A. Shaw,et al.  Central somatosensory conduction time from 10 to 79 years. , 1982, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[13]  G Cheron,et al.  Somatosensory evoked potentials to finger stimulation in healthy octogenarians and in young adults: wave forms, scalp topography and transit times of parietal and frontal components. , 1980, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[14]  A. Salamy,et al.  Postnatal development of human brainstem potentials during the first year of life. , 1976, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[15]  O. Markand,et al.  Brainstem auditory evoked responses in hereditary motor‐sensory neuropathy , 1982, Neurology.

[16]  G Cheron,et al.  Prevertebral (oesophageal) recording of subcortical somatosensory evoked potentials in man: the spinal P13 component and the dual nature of the spinal generators. , 1981, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[17]  T. Rasmussen,et al.  Scalp and direct cortical recordings of somatosensory evoked potentials in man (circa 1967). , 1981, Canadian journal of psychology.

[18]  A M Halliday,et al.  Differences between the occipital distribution of upper and lower field pattern-evoked responses in man. , 1971, Brain research.

[19]  J. Kimura,et al.  SHORT‐LATENCY SOMATOSENSORY EVOKED POTENTIALS FOLLOWING MEDIAN NERVE STIMULATION , 1980 .

[20]  D. Lindsley,et al.  Chapter 1 – The Electroencephalogram: Autonomous Electrical Activity in Man and Animals , 1974 .

[21]  R. Cracco,et al.  Somatosensory evoked potential in man: far field potentials. , 1976, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[22]  G. Paludetti,et al.  Reference values and characteristics of brain stem audiometry in neonates and children. , 1981, Scandinavian audiology.

[23]  C C Wood,et al.  Brain stem auditory, pattern-reversal visual, and short-latency somatosensory evoked potentials: latencies in relation to age, sex, and brain and body size. , 1983, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[24]  T. Ganes.  Synaptic and non-synaptic components of the human cervical evoked response , 1982, Journal of the Neurological Sciences.

[25]  Y. Kuroiwa,et al.  Visual function of the extrageniculo-calcarine system in man: relationship to cortical blindness. , 1980, Archives of neurology.

[26]  A. Dekaban,et al.  Changes in brain weights during the span of human life: Relation of brain weights to body heights and body weights , 1978, Annals of neurology.

[27]  N. Strominger,et al.  Second order auditory pathways in the chimpanzee , 1977, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[28]  Luis Martinez-Milla´n,et al.  Cortico-cortical projections from striate cortex of the squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus). A radioautographic study , 1975, Brain Research.

[29]  L. Dorfman,et al.  Age‐related changes in peripheral and central nerve conduction in man , 1979, Neurology.

[30]  B. Cant,et al.  Conduction time in central somatosensory pathways in man. , 1978, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[31]  E. W. Snyder,et al.  Pattern reversal evoked potential amplitudes: life span changes. , 1981, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[32]  J Arezzo,et al.  Topography and intracranial sources of somatosensory evoked potentials in the monkey. I. Early components. , 1979, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[33]  G. McCandless,et al.  Aging and the auditory brain stem response. , 1982, Audiology : official organ of the International Society of Audiology.

[34]  R. Galamboš,et al.  Brain stem auditory evoked responses in human infants and adults. , 1974, Archives of otolaryngology.

[35]  J. Spire,et al.  Correlation of brainstem evoked response with direct acoustic nerve potential. , 1982, Advances in neurology.

[36]  Hu Chi-ming,et al.  Interpretation of the vertex short-latency acoustic response: A study of single neurons in the brain stem , 1977, Brain Research.

[37]  W. Cobb,et al.  The latency and form in man of the occipital potentials evoked by bright flashes , 1960, The Journal of physiology.

[38]  D L Jewett,et al.  Auditory-evoked far fields averaged from the scalp of humans. , 1971, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[39]  A. Starr,et al.  Correlation between confirmed sites of neurological lesions and abnormalities of far-field auditory brainstem responses. , 1976, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[40]  G. Cheron,et al.  Non-cephalic reference recording of early somatosensory potentials to finger stimulation in adult or aging normal man: differentiation of widespread N18 and contralateral N20 from the prerolandic P22 and N30 components. , 1981, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[41]  T Allison,et al.  SCALP AND CORTICAL RECORDINGS OF INITIAL SOMATOSENSORY CORTEX ACTIVITY TO MEDIAN NERVE STIMULATION IN MAN * , 1980, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[42]  S. Cobb,et al.  The effect of advancing age upon the human spinal cord , 1959 .

[43]  J P Joseph,et al.  Modifications of the pattern-evoked potential (PEP) in relation to the stimulated part of the visual field (clues for the most probable origin of each component). , 1979, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[44]  D. Hubel,et al.  Thalamic inputs to cytochrome oxidase-rich regions in monkey visual cortex. , 1982, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[45]  A. Mccormick,et al.  Aging of the optic nerve. , 1980, Archives of ophthalmology.