Selective Modulation of Interhemispheric Functional Connectivity by HD-tACS Shapes Perception

Oscillatory neuronal synchronization between cortical areas has been suggested to constitute a flexible mechanism to coordinate information flow in the human cerebral cortex. However, it remains unclear whether synchronized neuronal activity merely represents an epiphenomenon or whether it is causal...

Celý popis

Uložené v:
Podrobná bibliografia
Vydané v:PLoS biology Ročník 12; číslo 12; s. e1002031
Hlavní autori: Helfrich, Randolph F., Knepper, Hannah, Nolte, Guido, Strüber, Daniel, Rach, Stefan, Herrmann, Christoph S., Schneider, Till R., Engel, Andreas K.
Médium: Journal Article
Jazyk:English
Vydavateľské údaje: United States Public Library of Science 01.12.2014
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Predmet:
ISSN:1545-7885, 1544-9173, 1545-7885
On-line prístup:Získať plný text
Tagy: Pridať tag
Žiadne tagy, Buďte prvý, kto otaguje tento záznam!
Popis
Shrnutí:Oscillatory neuronal synchronization between cortical areas has been suggested to constitute a flexible mechanism to coordinate information flow in the human cerebral cortex. However, it remains unclear whether synchronized neuronal activity merely represents an epiphenomenon or whether it is causally involved in the selective gating of information. Here, we combined bilateral high-density transcranial alternating current stimulation (HD-tACS) at 40 Hz with simultaneous electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings to study immediate electrophysiological effects during the selective entrainment of oscillatory gamma-band signatures. We found that interhemispheric functional connectivity was modulated in a predictable, phase-specific way: In-phase stimulation enhanced synchronization, anti-phase stimulation impaired functional coupling. Perceptual correlates of these connectivity changes were found in an ambiguous motion task, which strongly support the functional relevance of long-range neuronal coupling. Additionally, our results revealed a decrease in oscillatory alpha power in response to the entrainment of gamma band signatures. This finding provides causal evidence for the antagonistic role of alpha and gamma oscillations in the parieto-occipital cortex and confirms that the observed gamma band modulations were physiological in nature. Our results demonstrate that synchronized cortical network activity across several spatiotemporal scales is essential for conscious perception and cognition.
Bibliografia:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
The author(s) have made the following declarations about their contributions: Conceived and designed the experiments: RFH HK DS SR CSH TRS AKE. Performed the experiments: RFH HK. Analyzed the data: RFH HK. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: GN TRS. Wrote the paper: RFH. Discussed the results; edited and approved the manuscript: RFH HK GN DS SR CSH TRS AKE.
ISSN:1545-7885
1544-9173
1545-7885
DOI:10.1371/journal.pbio.1002031