Intern. J.

Neuroscience, 115:1043-1050, 2005 / T T ^ Tavlor 8i FranciS

Copyright 2005 Taylor & Francis inc. * y TiSFiC
iSSN: 0020-7454/1543-5245 oniine
DOI: 10.1080/00207450590898481

EFFECTS OF EXERCISE ON VISUAL

EVOKED POTENTIALS

RECEP OZMERDIVENLI
Physical Education and Sports Academy
Firat University
Elazig, Turkey

SERPIL BULUT
Department of Neurology
Firat University
Elazig, Turkey

HALE BAYAR
KURSAT KARACABEY
Physical Education and Sports Academy
Firat University
Elazig, Turkey

FIGEN CILOGLU
GENLAB Medical
Diagnostics and Research Laboratory
Istanbul, Turkey

ISMAIL PEKER
Department of Chemical Engineering
Marmara University
Istanbul, Turkey

Received 12 August 2004.

Address correspondence to Dr. Recep Ozmerdivenli, Sports Academy, Firat University, Elazig,
Turkey. E-mail: rozmerdivenli@hotmail.com

1043
1044 R, OZMERDIVENLI ET AL,

UNER TAN
Department of Physiology
Cukurova University
Adana, Turkey

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of acute or habitual exercise
on visual evoked potentials (VEP), The study group consisted of 9 female and
7 male volleyball players and the control group contained 9 female and 7 male
students who were not involved in any sportive activity. The N75, PlOO, and
N145 latency and amplitudes were measured before and after exercise, Intra-
group comparison was made to evaluate the acute effects and intergroup com-
parison for the chronic effects of exercise. Significant differences were noted
between athletes and the sedentary subjects in terms of pre-exercise left-N145
latencies and amplitudes and left -PlOO amplitudes. Right-eye N145 latencies
of inactive female subjects obtained before and after exercise were also statis-
tically different. The results suggest that acute and habitual exercise affects the
VEP responses independent from the body temperature and other physiological
parameters. Small sized pre-exercise PlOO amplitudes in the athletes can be
attributed to the effect of rapid visual-activity-demanding sports on the central
nervous system. Visual evoked potentials maybe used as neurophysiological
criteria in defining the perfonnance of an athlete.

Keywords brain, evoked potential, exercise, performance, volleyball

INTRODUCTION

Visual evoked potentials (VEP) are used to assess the central visual pathways
(Thomas et al., 1991), Sortie physiological factors are known to affect the
VEPs (Allison et al,, 1983; Sokol et al., 1981). The attention has been drawn
to the correlation between the physical activity and evoked potential responses
of the athletes in some studies that have reported that "time to reaction" is
shorter in athletes than inactive people (Guthkelch et al., 1987; Michael,
1971; Chiou-Tan et al., 1998),
The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of acute and regular
exercise on the evoked potentials after the normalization for the body tem-
perature and to validate the VEP responses as a parameter in classifying the
performance of the athletes.
EXERCISE ON EVOKED POTENTIAL 1045

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Volunteers from the Firat University were selected as subjects in this study
after being thoroughly informed about the details of the study and questioned
about the length of their sports life, daily schedule of exercise, systemic
diseases, and visual problems. From the volunteers, 10 female volleyball
players devoid of systemic disease and similar duration of sports life, daily
length of exercise, age, height, and head circumference were included in the
181 study group; 10 male volleyball players with similar features were en-
rolled in the 2nd study group. Ten inactive girls were included in group 3
and 10 inactive boys in group 4. Prior to the study, all subjects underwent a
thorough neurological examination, nerve conduction studies for one upper
and one lower extremity, and visual field and visual acuity tests. The visual
evoked potential recordings were accomplished with eyeglasses in 4 subjects
who had refraction defects.
Body temperature was measured by using a mouth thermometer before,
immediately, and every 10 min after exercise until it dropped to the pre-
exercise level.
A Dantec Keypoint Electromyography device (Denmark) was used for
the study of evoked potentials. All subjects were seated comfortably in a
dark room 115 cm away from the monitor giving out visual stimuli for VEP
recordings. The active electrode was positioned at the O^, and the reference
electrode at the C, point. Electrode impedance was adjusted below 5 kOhms.
Right eye monocular recordings of all cases were obtained while the left eye
was closed. A "chessboard pattern reversal" method was applied with a speed
of 1.5 Hz. The subjects were instructed to gaze at the square-shaped white
target in the middle of the screen, the filters were tuned at 0.5-1000 Hz,
sweep velocity at 30/ms and 100 responses from each eye were averaged by
automatic analysis and artifact rejection. N75, PIOO, and N145 latencies and
amplitudes were measured as milliseconds (ms) and millivolts (mV), respec-
tively.
The subjects exercised 30 min on a treadmill (Star Track Tr 900) at 60-
70% of their maximum heart rate based on 70% of their indirectly calculated
maxVOj value by using the Karvonen protocol (Wilmore & Costill, 1999).
SPSS for windows version lO.O-computer program was used for statisti-
cal analysis. Age, height, weight, length of sports life, head circumference,
body temperature before and after exercise, and resting heart rate values of
the groups were compared by Kruskall-Wallis One-Way Anova test. Visual
evoked potential latencies and amplitudes for each group before and after
 1046 R. OZMERDIVENLI ET AL,

exercise were evaluated by Wilcoxon-Rank test. The Mann Whitney U test

was used in comparing the pre- and post-exercise values of the women (Groups
1 and 3) and men (Groups 2 and 4). p < .05 was accepted as being statisti-
cally significant.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

From the initial 40 subjects, 4 students did not participate, another 2 had
elevated body temperatures before exercise (>37,5 C), and 2 students could
not finish the exercise program and therefore were excluded from the study.
No significant difference was noted among all 4 groups in terms of age,
head circumference, or body temperature taken before and after exercise.
Significant differences were found between women and men in terms of
height and weight (p < .05), Resting heart rates were found to be signifi-
cantly higher in the inactive groups (Groups 3 and 4) as compared to the
athletes (p < .05) (Table 1),
In order to eliminate the effects of the physiological factors on evoked
potentials, groups similar in demographic features were compared with each
other (group 1-3 and group 2-4), Comparing the pre-exercise VEP latencies
and amplitudes of inactive and athletic women (Groups 1 and 3), left N145
latency and amplitudes was found to be significantly different (p < ,05), No
difference was noted in post-exercise VEP values (Table 2), Likewise, there
was a significant difference in pre-exercise PlOO amplitudes of inactive and

Table 1. Demographic characteristics of the groups (mean standard deviation)

Group 1 (n = 9) Group 2 ( = 7) Group 3 in = 9) Group 4 (n = 7)

Age (years) 21,11 1,90 20,22 1,3 21,42 0,97 19,57 0,97
Height (cm) 162,33 5,63 162,66 5,14 180,42 4,15 172,71 3,09
Weight (kg) 57,6 4,3 63,4 7,1 58,2 3,5 66,2 3,1
HC (cm) 57,2 1,2 58,8 1,0 57,4 1,3 59,1 0,8
LSL (years) 4,5 2,4 6,1 2,1
RHR 55,3 3,2 50,5 4,7 75,4 5,7 72,7 + 4,3
BT (pre-ex) 36,5 0,4 36,3 0,7 36,6 0,5 36,5 0,6
BT (post-ex) 36,4 0,6 36,6 0,8 36,7 0,3 36,6 + 0,3
Max VOj 38,75 3,55 51,25 2,17 30,35 3,09 44,18 1,05
(ml/kg/mm)

HC = head circumference, LSL = length of sports life, RHR = resting heart rate, BT = body
temperature.
EXERCISE ON EVOKED POTENTIAL 1047

Table 2. Comparison of pre- and post-exercise VEP responses in groups 1 and 3

(mean standard deviation)

Group I (female athletes) Group 3 (sedentary females)

( = 9) {n = 9)

Pre-exercise Post-exercise Pre-exercise Post-exercise

Right N75 latency (ms) 67.31 3.24 68.61 3.55 69.40 4.68 70.04 3.22
Right PI00 latency (ms) 96.32 6.95 95.94 5.08 99.01 5.91 98.48 3.69
Right N145 latency (ms) 136.31 11.44 141.40 7.89 140.81 4.61 143.40 4.30
Right N75 amplitude (mV) 2.30 0.75 2.81 1.29 3.54 2.04 2.65 1.04
Right PlOO amplitude (mV) 5.8O 1.19 5.99 1.22 6.95 2.38 5.48 1.65
Right N145 amplitude (mV) 3.47 1.41 4.02 1.44 4.40 1.94 3.74 1.53
Left N75 latency (ms) 63.73 3.47 69.81 5.17 69.51 50.4 70.71 3.17
Left PlOO latency (ms) 97.03 6.76 97.35 5.40 100.07 5.08 99.21 3.49
Left N145 latency (ms) 136.55 10.27' 141.11 8.21" 146.24 6.83" 144.10 4.40
Left N75 amplitude (mV) 2.16 1.02 2.63 1.88 2.99 1.74 70.71 3.17
Left PlOO amplitude (mV) 5.81 0.78 5.98 1.95 6.51 2.39 6.77 2.27
Left N145 amplitude (mV) 3.48 1.18" 3.42 1.75 5.98 1.57' 4.09 1.61

"Intergroup; 'intragroup.

athletic men (groups 2 and 4) (p < .05) whereas no difference was noted for
post-exercise values (Table 3).
VEP latencies and amplitudes of all groups recorded before and after
exercise when body temperature normalized were compared with each other
(Table 2). Statistically significant difference (p < .05) was noted among the
pre- and post-exercise N145 latencies recorded in the right eye of the seden-
tary women. No differences were noted in Group 1, 2, and 4 pre- and post-
exercise VEP latencies and amplitudes
Evoked potential responses have been shown to be influenced by some
physiological factors (Magnie et al., 1998; Bhanot, & Sidhu 1980; Thomas et
al., 1991; Huttunen & Homberg, 1991; Nishihira et al., 1996). Shortening of
"time to reaction," improvement of muscle strength, and the enhancement of
physical capacity in athletes are the clinical evidence of the effects of exer-
cise on neuro-physiological parameters.
Contradictory results have been obtained in studies investigating the ef-
fects of acute and habitual exercise on evoked potentials. Thomas, Jones, and
Caramia (1991) evaluated the pre- and post-exercise auditory evoked poten-
tial (AER) responses in the bicycle riders and concluded that post-exercise 3
and 4 wave latencies were relatively shortened and correlated with the post-
1048 R, OZMERDIVENLI ET AL.

Table 3. Comparison of pre- and post-exercise VEP responses in groups 2 and 4

(mean standard deviation)

Group I (male athletes) Group 3 (sedentary males)

(" = 7) (n = 7)

Pre-exercise Post-exercise Pre-exercise Post-exercise

Right N75 latency (ms) 68.88 4.76 67.72 3.52 69.75 5.57 70.04 3.22
Right PIOO latency (ms) 96.15 3.55 96.21 4.52 98.52 6.4 98.48 3.69
Right N145 latency (ms) 140.30 7.85 140.31 6.42 145.58 7.69 143.40 4.30
Right N75 amplitude (mV) 1.80 I.II 1.97 1.77 2.66 1.51 2.65 1.04
Right PIOO amplitude (mV) 4.53 1.56 3.78 1.20 4.72 2.19 5.48 1.65
Right N145 amplitude (mV) 3.20 1.81 3.17 1.48 3.45 1.65 3.74 1.53
Left N75 latency (ms) 68.97 4.74 70.34 3.53 70.54 3.77 70.71 3.17
Left PIOO latency (ms) 97.64 + 4.94 97.11 3.08 98.64 6.17 99.21 3.49
Left N145 latency (ms) 143.21 7.01 41.65 3.99 147.11 13.6 144.10 4.40
Left N75 amplitude (mV) 2.23 1.28 71.97 1.65 2.13 1.37 70.71 3.17
Left PIOO amplitude (mV) 4.14 1.26" 3.77 0.88 7.09 2.12" 6.77 2.27
Left N145 amplitude (mV) 3.39 0.69 3.15 1.51 5.10 2.79 4.09 1.61

"lntragroup (all others are intergroup).

exercise body temperature elevation (see Rossini et al., 1996). On the other
hand, Magni found no difference between pre-exercise VEP and AER re-
cordings and post-exercise recordings taken after the normalization of the
body temperature and stated that there was no specific effect of exercise on
evoked potentials (see Thomas et al., 1991).
In this study volleyball players and inactive people with similar demo-
graphic features were compared to find if there is a physiological effect of
acute and chronic exercise on evoked potentials independent from the body
temperature elevation. Significant differences were noted between pre-exer-
cise PIOO amplitudes of male athletes and inactive men and pre-exercise
N145 latency and amplitudes of female athletes and inactive women.
Visual reaction time has been shown to be much shorter in the athletes
training in the types of sports that demand rapid eye activity (tennis, volley-
ball, squash, etc.) than the other type of sports (athletics, bicycle riding, etc.)
(Guthkelch et al., 1987; Monis & Kreighbaum, 1977; Michael, 1971). In this
study, smaller pre-exercise PIOO amplitudes recorded in the athletes may be
explained by their branch of sports that requires rapid visual activity. Similar
results were noted with squash players in another study (Bhanot & Sidhu,
1980), A correlation between PIOO wave latency and head circumference was
EXERCISE ON EVOKED POTENTIAL 1049

noted in some other studies (Allison et al, 1983). The N145 and PlOO waves
in this study were not correlated with the head circumference measurements.
Post-exercise right N145 latencies of the sedentary women were shorter
than the preexercise values whereas no difference was noted between pre-
and post-exercise VEPs of the men that can be due to daily high activity of
the men, thus being less influenced, by exercise.
N9 and N20 amplitudes were evaluated by median nerve stimulation of
the inactive subjects in order to prove the effects of isometric muscle con-
tractions on SEPs at cortical level. N9 amplitude recorded at periphery was
shown to increase after contraction, whereas N20 amplitude obtained at cor-
tical level shortened significantly (Kjaer, 1980). Many authors have pointed
out the depression of SEP amplitudes during muscle contraction recordings
but failed to explain the mechanism (Delpont et al., 1981; Psatta & Matei,
1988; Parker et al., 1971; Chuang et al., 1999; Jones et al., 1989). VEP
response differences between sportsmen and inactive subjects can be ex-
plained by likely changes of neuro-physiological and neuroendocrine factors
caused by the increased exercise capacity.
In conclusion, this study reveals that acute and habitual exercise affects
VEP values independent from body temperature or other physiological pa-
rameters. Additionally, VEP potentials may well be used as neuro-physi-
ological criteria in defining the performances of the athletes.

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