Various electrophysiological tests have provided a large body of valuable information on neuronal responses to a presentedstimulus. The special and general somatic sensory pathways are main targets of evoked potentials. Two types of evokedpotentials, exogenous and endogenous, are commonly used. Exogenous evoked potentials of general and special somatic sensorysystems will be reviewed. One of general somatic sensory functional pathways, proprioception, can be evaluated by generalsomatosensory evoked potentials with electrical stimulation on nerves. The special somatosensory functional pathways,including vision, and audition, can be evaluated by visual evoked potentials and auditory evoked potentials. Also laser-evokedpotentials are newly developed for pain pathway, including lateral spinothalamic pathway, and vestibular myogenic evokedpotentials for sacculocollic pathways. The evoked potentials of sensory system have maximal clinical utility in evaluatingfunctional deficits along the sensory pathways. They are used for evaluating comatose patients, hysterical patients, prematureinfants, patients with suspected demyelinating diseases or neoplasms, and research. We discuss the neurophysiologic testsof sensory systems in views of practical points. The organized evaluation of sensory electrophysiologic tests can be helpfulin detecting and estimating the abnormalities in neurological diseases.
