Standards for the assessment of visual evoked potentials in an ethnically heterogeneous adult population.

Visual evoked potentials (VEPs) were recorded by chequerboard pattern-reversal stimulation in 276 normal adult subjects aged 15-73 years. The sample comprised comparable white, coloured and black groups of both sexes. Significantly shorter latencies of the major positive component were found in both male and female black subjects compared with those in whites. No significant differences were found between the amplitudes in the different population groups, but females in each population group showed significantly higher amplitudes of the major positive component than males. There was a close relationship between latency and amplitude for both right and left eyes. Except in coloured females, a non-linear relationship of the major positive component with age was demonstrated, the shortest latency being at about 35 years of age. It is suggested that the following criteria be used in the evaluation of VEP recordings: latency as well as the difference between latencies and amplitudes of the two sides of the major positive component (P1) as compared with standardized values for ethnic, sex and age groups.