Periodic synchronous discharges and visual evoked potentials in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: PSD-triggered flash VEPs.

We have developed the technique of flash visual evoked potentials (VEPs) triggered by periodic synchronous discharges (PSDs) to investigate the interaction between PSDs and VEPs in 3 patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). This technique enables us to explore the cerebral pathophysiology underlying CJD. Unexpectedly, we found that PSDs and VEPs did not interact even when VEPs were evoked in close temporal proximity to PSDs. Thus, it appears that PSDs are generated by a different neuronal mechanism from that involved in VEP generation.