Attention and Temporal Expectations Modulate Power, Not Phase, of Ongoing Alpha Oscillations

Diepen, Rosanne M. van; Cohen, Michael X; Denys, Damiaan; Mazaheri, Ali

doi:10.1162/jocn_a_00803

Cited by 117 publications

(113 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Similar approaches were used by Osipova et al (2006), Jokisch and Jensen (2007), Mazaheri et al (2009), and Van Diepen et al (2015). Although this approach uses a smaller number of cycles in comparison to Morlet wavelet approaches of time frequency decompositions (i.e., 5–7 cycles); it does afford the maximum temporal resolution for pre-and-post fluctuations in alpha power.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Alpha Activity in Spatial and Feature-Based Attention

Diepen

Miller

Mazaheri

et al. 2016

eNeuro

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Modulations in alpha oscillations (∼10 Hz) are typically studied in the context of anticipating upcoming stimuli. Alpha power decreases in sensory regions processing upcoming targets compared to regions processing distracting input, thereby likely facilitating processing of relevant information while suppressing irrelevant. In this electroencephalography study using healthy human volunteers, we examined whether modulations in alpha power also occur after the onset of a bilaterally presented target and distractor. Spatial attention was manipulated through spatial cues and feature-based attention through adjusting the color-similarity of distractors to the target. Consistent with previous studies, we found that informative spatial cues induced a relative decrease of pretarget alpha power at occipital electrodes contralateral to the expected target location. Interestingly, this pattern reemerged relatively late (300–750 ms) after stimulus onset, suggesting that lateralized alpha reflects not only preparatory attention, but also ongoing attentive stimulus processing. Uninformative cues (i.e., conveying no information about the spatial location of the target) resulted in an interaction between spatial attention and feature-based attention in post-target alpha lateralization. When the target was paired with a low-similarity distractor, post-target alpha was lateralized (500–900 ms). Crucially, the lateralization was absent when target selection was ambiguous because the distractor was highly similar to the target. Instead, during this condition, midfrontal theta was increased, indicative of reactive conflict resolution. Behaviorally, the degree of alpha lateralization was negatively correlated with the reaction time distraction cost induced by target–distractor similarity. These results suggest a pivotal role for poststimulus alpha lateralization in protecting sensory processing of target information.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Alpha Activity in Spatial and Feature-Based Attention

Diepen

Miller

Mazaheri

et al. 2016

eNeuro

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“…The control serves to phase-synchronize the oscillations between different regions and modulate the degree of pulsed inhibition to allocate computational resources. A number of studies have shown that alpha magnitude and phase can be modulated in anticipation of relevant or irrelevant stimuli (Foxe et al, 1998; Thut et al, 2006; Foxe and Snyder, 2011; Bonnefond and Jensen, 2012; Samaha et al, 2015; but see van Diepen et al, 2015), indicating that alpha oscillatory activity is indeed under internal control. In this section, we discuss two complementary mechanisms for this control, namely that alpha oscillations are controlled by neocortical feedback connections or by the thalamus.…”

Section: Control Of Alpha Oscillations In Relation To Cortical Layersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Communication between Brain Areas Based on Nested Oscillations

Bonnefond

Kästner

Jensen

2017

eNeuro

244

190

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Unraveling how brain regions communicate is crucial for understanding how the brain processes external and internal information. Neuronal oscillations within and across brain regions have been proposed to play a crucial role in this process. Two main hypotheses have been suggested for routing of information based on oscillations, namely communication through coherence and gating by inhibition. Here, we propose a framework unifying these two hypotheses that is based on recent empirical findings. We discuss a theory in which communication between two regions is established by phase synchronization of oscillations at lower frequencies (<25 Hz), which serve as temporal reference frame for information carried by high-frequency activity (>40 Hz). Our framework, consistent with numerous recent empirical findings, posits that cross-frequency interactions are essential for understanding how large-scale cognitive and perceptual networks operate.

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“…Recent experiments show that the brain can either actively adjust its alpha phase during an attentional distractor task [28,29] or modulate the power [30]. These studies have focused on alpha phase adjustments in tasks with temporal expectations about the onset of stimuli.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Top-down control of cortical gamma-band communication via pulvinar induced phase shifts in the alpha rhythm

Quax¹,

Jensen²,

Tiesinga³

2017

PLoS Comput Biol

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Selective routing of information between cortical areas is required in order to combine different sources of information according to cognitive demand. Recent experiments have suggested that alpha band activity originating from the pulvinar coordinates this inter-areal cortical communication. Using a computer model we investigated whether top-down induced shifts in the relative alpha phase between two cortical areas could modulate cortical communication, quantified in terms of changes in gamma band coherence between them. The network model was comprised of two uni-directionally connected neuronal populations of spiking neurons, each representing a cortical area. We find that the phase difference of the alpha oscillations modulating the two neuronal populations strongly affected the interregional gamma-band neuronal coherence. We confirmed that a higher gamma band coherence also resulted in more efficient transmission of spiking information between cortical areas, thereby confirming the value of gamma coherence as a proxy for cortical information transmission. In a model where both neuronal populations were connected bi-directionally, the relative alpha phase determined the directionality of communication between the populations. Our results show the feasibility of a physiological realistic mechanism for routing information in the brain based on coupled oscillations. Our model results in a set of testable predictions regarding phase shifts in alpha oscillations under different task demands requiring experimental quantification of neuronal oscillations in different regions in e.g. attention paradigms.

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Attention and Temporal Expectations Modulate Power, Not Phase, of Ongoing Alpha Oscillations

Cited by 117 publications

References 47 publications

The Role of Alpha Activity in Spatial and Feature-Based Attention

The Role of Alpha Activity in Spatial and Feature-Based Attention

Communication between Brain Areas Based on Nested Oscillations

Top-down control of cortical gamma-band communication via pulvinar induced phase shifts in the alpha rhythm

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