Objective: To understand the specific nature of the color and brightness components of the human visual evoked potential and explore the possibility of an objective method for examining the color vision.
Method: The transient VEP was measured in normal subjects and persons with deficient color vision by multichannel electro-physiological apparatus. In the experiment, four kinds of reversal checkerboard patterns are simulated by the computer software technology as stimuli. The patterns included black-white (95% contrast), isoluminance chromatic checkerboards red-white, green-white, red-green (100% saturation), which were 25 ' in visual angle and alternated at a rate of 0.8 Hz. The main component, P (1) wave, was analyzed.
Results: (1) The normal subject group: The P (1) latencies in four conditions were obtained in terms of the length of latencies, the ordinal of P (1) latencies (from short to long) was as follows: red-white < black-white < red-green < green-white. There were very significant differences among the four latencies (P < 0.01). The P (1) amplitudes elicited with the black-white were higher than those with chromatic ones. But among the P(1) amplitudes elicited with chromatic checkerboards there were no difference. (2) The group with deficient color vision: There were no significant differences in the P(1) latencies and amplitudes elicited with the four stimuli. The length of latencies with black- white stimulus was the shortest. Red-green blindness as well as deuteranopia had no response to green stimulus but did to red or red-green stimulus. (3) Between the two groups, there were no differences in the P (1) latencies, but the P (1) amplitudes of persons with deficient color vision elicited with the chromatic stimuli were obviously lower.
Conclusion: The results show that it is feasible to use chromatic VEP for examining congenital color vision deficiency, especially for red-green blindness and deuteranopia. At present, there is lack of quantitative and qualitative results of color VEP examination.