M-COMPONENT AND P-COMPONENT OF THE VEP AND THEIR VISUAL-FIELD DISTRIBUTION

To study components related to parallel processing of information acro ss the visual field, multifocal pattern reversal visual evoked potenti als (VEPs) were recorded using binary m-sequences. Contrast, chromatic , spatial and temporal characteristics of the stimuli were varied in o rder to favor contributions from either M or P pathways. Responses wer e decomposed into two additive components whose behavior was consisten t with that of M and P mechanisms. The results suggest that contributi ons to the VEP from the M pathway precede those from the P pathway, an d that the ratio of P/M contributions decreases with eccentricity. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.