CORRELATION OF SOMATOSENSORY CENTRAL CONDUCTION TIME WITH HEIGHT

To study the correlation between somatosensory central conduction time (CCT) and the subject's height, we recorded somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) from the neck and scalp elicited by median nerve stimulation in 72 normal young adults. We determined the CCT in each subject from peak-to-peak and onset-to-onset measurements. The mean value for the onset CCT was 6.2+/-0.4 msec and for the peak CCT, 5.7+/-0.5 msec. The peak CCT was significantly shorter but showed a wide range. There was a significant correlation between the onset CCT, but not the peak CCT, and height. Our findings confirm that the length of the central somatosensory pathway is proportional to the subject's height and indicate that the ''conventional'' peak CCT measurement of median nerve SEPs is inadequate.