Abstract
Background Somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) are used extensively to quantify cortical activity in response to noxious and/or non-noxious sensory stimuli. However, data demonstrating the reliability of SEP measures in response to non-noxious stimulation over time are scarce. Aim We investigated the relative and absolute reliability, and the smallest detectable change at 95% confidence (SDC95) for SEPs evoked by non-noxious electrical stimulation of the paraspinal muscles in thirty-nine healthy participants at a 3-month interval. Methods SEPs were evoked at an intensity three-times that of each participant's perceptual threshold and recorded from a single electrode placed over the primary somatosensory cortex (S1). Results Our analyses reveal that i) latency, as a measure of activity onset, has poor relative reliability but good absolute reliability; ii) area, as a measure of cortical activity, has good relative and absolute reliability (except for the N150 component) and iii) perceptual threshold and stimulation intensity was not reliable over time. Conclusion These findings suggest that the area of the N80 and P260 SEP components, and the area of the N80-N150-P260 SEP complex, can be utilised in future studies as reliable markers of cortical activity.
Published Version
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