Double peaked P1 visual evoked potentials in healthy ageing

G. Stothart*, A. Tales, C. Hedge, N. Kazanina

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Objectives: To robustly examine the prevalence of the double peaked P1 visual evoked potential in healthy younger and older adult populations. 

Methods: The evoked potentials and spectral power changes to simple visual stimuli of 26 healthy younger (. M=. 20.0. y) and 26 healthy older adults (. M=. 76.0. y) were examined. 

Results: Group and individual analyses showed a clear effect of age on P1 morphology and amplitude. Older adults showed significantly lower P1 amplitude and 44% of older adults showed a double peaked P1 compared to 12% of younger adults. Double peaked P1 responses were associated with an increase in spectral power in the gamma range. 

Conclusions: The double peaked P1 may be more prevalent in older adults than previously demonstrated and may represent a de-synchronisation of the cortical sources of the visual P1 in healthy ageing. Increased power in post stimulus gamma in the double peak group may be indicative of compensatory neural processing. 

Significance: Clinically the prevalence of the double peaked P1 may have been underestimated, and its reflectance of demyelinating disease overestimated. Experimentally the results suggest that any investigation of visual processing in older adults must control for early changes in P1 morphology.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1471-1478
Number of pages8
JournalClinical Neurophysiology
Volume125
Issue number7
Early online date6 Dec 2013
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2014

Bibliographical note

Funding: BRACE-Alzheimer’s research registered charity No. 297965. This work was supported by the Biotechnology and Biosciences Research Council.

Keywords

  • Ageing
  • Compensation
  • Double peak
  • Gamma
  • P1
  • Visual evoked potentials

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Double peaked P1 visual evoked potentials in healthy ageing'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this