Contributions from lateral interaction mechanisms to the human ERG can be studied with a two-frequency method

• Published in: Vision research (Oxford) Vol. 45; no. 22; pp. 2862 - 2876
• Main Authors: Meigen, Th, Prüfer, R., Reime, S., Friedrich, A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2005; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Adult; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Electrophysiology; Electroretinogram; Electroretinography - methods; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Interaction; Lateral; Male; Middle Aged; Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology; PERG; Photic Stimulation; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Retina - physiology; Electrophysiology; Electroretinogram; Lateral; Interaction; PERG; Electroretinography; Human; Methodology; Investigation method; Method
• ISSN: 0042-6989; 1878-5646
• DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2005.06.025

We present a two-frequency method to investigate lateral interaction components (liERGs) in the human electroretinogram. Adjacent half cycles of sinusoidal gratings were modulated sinusoidally with different temporal frequencies f 1 and f 2. The liERGs were defined by the Fourier components at the intermodulation frequencies ∣ f 1 − f 2∣ and f 1 + f 2 which indicate nonlinear interactions between the half cycles. Significant liERGs were found in all subjects with a monotonic increase of the liERG magnitude in the spatial frequency range from f s = 0.07 to 2.4 cpd. When ∣ f 1 − f 2∣ was below 5 Hz, liERGs were masked by noise intrusions. In a control experiment we demonstrated that the liERGs were not evoked by stray light artifacts. The liERGs may help to further differentiate the responses that are evoked by patterned stimuli within the retina.