Determination of conduction times of the peripheral and central parts of the sensory pathway using evoked somatosensory potentials.

Determination of conduction times of the peripheral and central parts of the sensory pathway using evoked somatosensory potentials. Acta physiol. pol., 1985, 36 (3): 216-223. Simultaneous recording of the somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP) from Erb's point, neck and scalp allows investigation of the peripheral and central conduction times. The early components of the SEP produced by stimulation of the median nerve at the wrist were recorded using standardized electrode locations in 15 normal subjects. The difference of the latencies between the first peak of the cortical response (N20) and the peak of the neck response (N14) reflects, probably, the conduction time between the dorsal column nuclei and the cortex. Its value was 6 +/- 0.7 msec. The conduction time difference (between peak Erb's point response (N9) and N14) was 5.5 +/- 0.5 msec and it reflected the peripheral conduction time. For diagnostic application the lower limit of the response amplitudes was determined also for every component.