Reliability of Pattern Reversal Evoked Potentials (PREP) Using the NICOLETPathfinder II

摘要

Evoked potentials (EPs) are emerging as a useful tool to determine the functionalintegrity of the central and peripheral nervous systems. The Pattern Reversal Evoked Potential (PREP) provides an assessment of the functioning of the visual nervous system pathway. Signal averaging systems such as the Nicolet Pathfinder II extract the EP from the background electroencephalogram. Because different laboratories may have slightly different techniques and environmental conditions, each laboratory first must establish normative values for the system before research studies can be undertaken. The purposes of this study were to assess the reliability of our system for collection of PREPS and to establish laboratory norms. Twenty-four males and eleven females served as volunteer research subjects. Subjects were administered two trials for each eye on each of two days. Conditions remained constant for all trials. Brain evoked responses have traditionally been used for neurodiagnostic purposes in the clinical setting. A novel utilization of evoked potential technology enables the systematic correlation of changes in the performance of cognitive and/or sensorimotor tasks to changes in the amplitude and latency of neuronal signals in specific pathways within the brain. Such performance assessment technology represents the only window to the human central nervous system with direct application to the performance of military skills. (kr)