ABSTRACT
Cortical events can also be measured without using sensory stimuli to synchronize the ongoing cortical activity. Apart from measurement of cortical latencies to peripheral nerve stimulation, which has important clinical application in the diagnosis of certain neurological disorders, somatosensory evoked potentials have been used to study the neural processing of sensory inputs. Comparisons of the scalp distributions of the cortical potentials evoked by stimulation of cutaneous and muscle afferents do reveal differences in the area of cortex to which each species of afferent projects. Cortical evoked potentials have been used to assess changes in the ‘strength’ of central synapses, to study the involvement of the cerebral cortex in long-latency reflex responses to stimulation of muscle or cutaneous afferents, and to examine task-dependent changes in cortical processing of sensory information during manipulation.
