An implemented system for studying the influence of auricular eye-point electrical stimulation on PR-VEP

Abstract

In Chinese auriculotherapy medicine, stimulation to auricular eye-related points can be used for curing eye's disorders and in Western neurological medicine, pattern-reversal visual evoked potential (PR-VEP) can be used for examining the same disorders. Thus, for understanding the correlation between auricular point electrical stimulation and PR-VEP this study aims to implement a system to do so. The implemented system mainly contains a biphasic current stimulator, a LabVIEW-based pattern reversal control monitor, a Neuroscan's EEG recording device and a PC-based on-line recording and off-line processing subsystem. Next, in the experimental design of the study, ear eye-points of each subject with high myopia were clipped using a pair of specific electrode clip. Three recording electrodes at the Oz, O1 and O2 positions were selected. All visual/electrical stimulation parameters were fixed except electrical stimulation frequency changing from 1 to 5 Hz. The preliminary results show that when using the stimulation frequencies of 2 and 4 Hz, the latency differences of P100 before and after PR-VEP test are higher and the paired- t test values are all smaller than 0.05. It is understood that the two frequencies could have higher activation function on cortical visual nerves than others. In the future, further study needs to be made. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.