2024 Volume 52 Issue 1 Pages 38-52
The history of somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) research is reviewed, and future challenges and prospects are discussed. The world’s first report of SEPs in patients with myoclonus epilepsy was a giant SEP response obtained by EEG superimposition after sensory stimulation. In the 1970s and 1980s, the SEP components were clinically applied to the somatosensory conduction pathways to the cerebrum, and the activity at various levels of these pathways was of great interest. There was a great controversy over whether the early cortical responses in humans originated from area 3b or areas 1 and 4, but magnetic field measurements confirmed the tangential current source, indicating that area 3b origin is correct and that the area 1 response is superimposed after a delay of about 2 ms. The study of 600 Hz high-frequency signals superimposed on early cortical responses has now become a new field of clinical application and research, and future research is expected to develop on the spatiotemporal characteristics of activity in the 3b and 1 cortices and its relation to beta oscillations in sensorimotor cortex.
