The influence of age on the flash visual evoked potentials

The effect of age on flash visual evoked potentials was investigate in 148 normal subjects aged 6 to 84 years. The occurrence of the P1 wave progressively increased with age, while the P2 wave was recordable in all the subjects. There were significant effects of age on the P2 latency (p≤0.01) and the P2 amplitude (p≤0.01). The latency of the N1 and N2 waves significantly changed with age. In particular, the N2 wave that occurred in the absence of the P1 wave had a latency similar to that of the N1 wave had a latency similar to that of the N1 wave in cases where the P1 wave was present. We suggest that the cases apparently without the P1 wave could be explained with a merging of this wave with the P2 wave in a major single deflection.