Evoked potential estimates of the time course of adaptation and recovery to counterphase gratings

Abstract

Scalp-recorded evoked potentials (VEP) were sequentially sampled in humans during adaptation to and recovery from prolonged viewing of counterphase sinusoidal grating targets. The sum of the power at the first and second harmonics of the Fourier-transformed VEP components was found to decrease during adaptation and increase during recovery. Time constants ( T) for the adaptation and recovery processes as estimated from exponential functions ranged from 2.9 to 19 sec, varying nonmonotonically with the spatial frequency and contrast of the stimulus. The observed T values are shorter than those reported in psychophysical studies of adaptation but overlap estimates derived from single cell studies. An unexpected finding was the occurrence of a 3–6 sec delay in the appearance of the maximum VEP response after the onset of the adaptation stimulus. The delay occurred in all subjects and at all spatial frequencies when moderate to high adapting contrasts (e.g. > 0.2) were used. The data support a feature-selective, multi-channel lateral inhibitory model of spatial vision and suggest the presence of tonic inhibition between the channels.