Visually evoked potentials: amplitude changes with age.

Visually evoked potentials of 215 subjects, aged 1 month to 81 years, were studied. Amplitudes of waves in the first 250 milliseconds of the response changed markedly with age. In responses recorded from the occiput, there was a rapid increase in amplitude reaching a maximum in the 5- to 6-year-old group, with means of amplitudes at this age being about twice as large as means of some older age groups. With children 7 years and older there was a rapid decline in amplitude until ages 13 to 14, when an abrupt increase in amplitude appeared. Amplitude appeared to stabilize at about age 16. In older subjects, mean age 60 and beyond, significant changes were noted in the earlier components of the response.