Visual evoked potentials to lateralised stimuli in two cases of callosal agenesis

Abstract

Visual evoked potentials (VEPs) to lateralised light flashes were recorded from two acallosal patients. In one patient, these recordings were made while he performed a choice-reaction time task, and in the other patient the VEPs were obtained during a simple reaction time task. In both cases the patient's VEPs from electrode sites contralateral to the visual field of stimulus delivery resembled those of controls. Their VEPs from ipsilateral sites were aberrant, however, in that while control subjects showed a smaller and slightly delayed ipsilateral N160 component, this was not discernible in the patients' data. It is concluded that the ipsilateral N160 relies for its generation on the transcallosal transfer of information processed initially by the contralateral hemisphere.