Visually Evoked Potentials

Detailed explanation of visually evoked potentials. The terms visually evoked potential (VEP), visually evoked response (VER) and visually evoked cortical potential (VECP) are equivalent. They refer to electrical potentials, initiated by brief visual stimuli, which are recorded from the scalp overlying visual cortex, VEP waveforms are extracted from the electro-encephalogram (EEG) by signal averaging. VEPs are used primarily to measure the functional integrity of the visual pathways from retina via the optic nerves to the visual cortex of the brain. VEPs better quantify functional integrity of the optic pathways than scanning techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).