Visual evoked potentials to luminance and chromatic contrast in rhesus monkeys.

The spatial and temporal tuning of the luminance and chromatic systems were investigated using visual evoked potentials (VEPs) recorded from rhesus monkeys. VEPs were recorded from eight bipolar electrodes which were chronically implanted in the foveal projection region of area 17 in two monkeys. They were elicited by luminance (yellow-black) and chromatic (red-green) since-wave gratings which varied in spatial frequency (1, 4, 8 and 12 c/deg) and temporal frequency (3, 6, 10 and 15 Hz). The findings showed that chromatic VEPs exhibit low-pass tuning in both the spatial and temporal domains, whereas luminance VEPs exhibit bandpass tuning in the spatial domain and low-pass tuning in the temporal domain. The spatial tuning findings are consistent with the psychophysical literature, while the low-pass temporal tuning shown by the luminance VEPs was attributed to various cancellations and distortions in the suprathreshold VEP at high flicker rates and to the effects of the anesthesia.