Local entrainment of alpha oscillations by visual stimuli causes cyclic modulation of perception
Source
The Journal of Neuroscience, 34, 10, (2014), pp. 3536-3544ISSN
Publication type
Article / Letter to editor
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Organization
PI Group Neuronal Oscillations
PI Group Predictive Brain
Neuroinformatics
Journal title
The Journal of Neuroscience
Volume
vol. 34
Issue
iss. 10
Languages used
English (eng)
Page start
p. 3536
Page end
p. 3544
Subject
160 000 Neuronal Oscillations; 180 000 Predictive Brain; NeuroinformaticsAbstract
Prestimulus oscillatory neural activity in the visual cortex has large consequences for perception and can be influenced by top-down control from higher-order brain regions. Making a causal claim about the mechanistic role of oscillatory activity requires that oscillations be directly manipulated independently of cognitive instructions. There are indications that a direct manipulation, or entrainment, of visual alpha activity is possible through visual stimulation. However, three important questions remain: (1) Can the entrained alpha activity be endogenously maintained in the absence of continuous stimulation?; (2) Does entrainment of alpha activity reflect a global or a local process?; and (3) Does the entrained alpha activity influence perception? To address these questions, we presented human subjects with rhythmic stimuli in one visual hemifield, and arhythmic stimuli in the other. After rhythmic entrainment, we found a periodic pattern in detection performance of near-threshold targets specific to the entrained hemifield. Using magnetoencephalograhy to measure ongoing brain activity, we observed strong alpha activity contralateral to the rhythmic stimulation outlasting the stimulation by several cycles. This entrained alpha activity was produced locally in early visual cortex, as revealed by source analysis. Importantly, stronger alpha entrainment predicted a stronger phasic modulation of detection performance in the entrained hemifield. These findings argue for a cortically focal entrainment of ongoing alpha oscillations by visual stimulation, with concomitant consequences for perception. Our results support the notion that oscillatory brain activity in the alpha band provides a causal mechanism for the temporal organization of visual perception.
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- Academic publications [245186]
- Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging [4021]
- Electronic publications [132505]
- Faculty of Science [37457]
- Open Access publications [106079]
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