VEP Correlates of Feedback in Human Cortex

It is known that neural responses become less dependent on the stimulus size and location along the visual pathway. This study aimed to use this property to find evidence of neural feedback in visually evoked potentials (VEP). High-density VEPs evoked by a contrast reversing checkerboard were collected from 15 normal observers using a 128-channel EEG system. Surface Laplacian method was used to calculate skull-scalp currents corresponding to the measured scalp potentials. This allowed us to identify several distinct foci of skull-scalp currents and to analyse their individual time-courses. Response nonlinearity as a function of the stimulus size increased markedly from the occipital to temporal loci. Similarly, the nonlinearity of reactivations (late evoked response peaks) over the occipital, lateral-occipital, and frontal scalp regions increased with the peak latency. Response laterality (contralateral vs. ipsilateral) was analysed in lateral-occipital and temporal loci. Early lateral-occipital responses were strongly contralateral but the response laterality decreased and then disappeared for later peaks. Responses in temporal loci did not differ significantly between contralateral and ipsilateral stimulation. Overall, the results suggest that feedback from higher-tier visual areas, e.g., those in temporal cortices, may significantly contribute to reactivations in early visual areas.