Shaping Intrinsic Neural Oscillations with Periodic Stimulation

Abstract

Rhythmic brain activity plays an important role in neural processing and behavior. Features of these oscillations, including amplitude, phase, and spectrum, can be influenced by internal states (e.g., shifts in arousal, attention or cognitive ability) or external stimulation. Electromagnetic stimulation techniques such as transcranial magnetic stimulation, transcranial direct current stimulation, and transcranial alternating current stimulation are used increasingly in both research and clinical settings. Currently, the mechanisms whereby time-dependent external stimuli influence population-scale oscillations remain poorly understood. Here, we provide computational insights regarding the mapping between periodic pulsatile stimulation parameters such as amplitude and frequency and the response dynamics of recurrent, nonlinear spiking neural networks. Using a cortical model built of excitatory and inhibitory neurons, we explored a wide range of stimulation intensities and frequencies systematically. Our results suggest that rhythmic stimulation can form the basis of a control paradigm in which one can manipulate the intrinsic oscillatory properties of driven networks via a plurality of input-driven mechanisms. Our results show that, in addition to resonance and entrainment, nonlinear acceleration is involved in shaping the rhythmic response of our modeled network. Such nonlinear acceleration of spontaneous and synchronous oscillatory activity in a neural network occurs in regimes of intense, high-frequency rhythmic stimulation. These results open new perspectives on the manipulation of synchronous neural activity for basic and clinical research.

Nonlinear Coupling between Cortical Oscillations and Muscle Activity during Isotonic Wrist Flexion

“…Compared to corticospinal tracts, the sensory feedback pathways involve more synapses and interneurons. Computational studies based on neural mass and neural field models have demonstrated the nonlinear dynamics of thalamo-cortical system in the sensory pathway, showing similar nonlinearity as we detected in this study (Spiegler et al, 2011; Roberts and Robinson, 2012; Herrmann et al, 2016). Furthermore, the mechanoreceptors such as muscle spindles are also known to be highly nonlinear (Mileusnic et al, 2006).…”

Information-Based Approaches of Noninvasive Transcranial Brain Stimulation

“…Importantly, some studies have shown that the up-regulation of brain oscillations at target frequencies is more effective when the frequency of stimulation matches the natural rhythms, than when offset (see e.g. [32] for results in the human brain), which is in line with models of entrainment [42].…”

Pre-stimulus alpha oscillations over somatosensory cortex predict tactile misperceptions

“…Ai & Ro, 2014;Lakatos, Karmos, Mehta, Ulbert, & Schroeder, 2008;Sherman et al, 2016) and may have other relationships with performance than the overall state as indexed here. Future investigations which directly manipulate ongoing oscillations through methods such as transcranial alternating current stimulation (Helfrich et al, 2014;Herrmann, Murray, Ionta, Hutt, & Lefebvre, 2016;Vosskuhl, Huster, & Herrmann, 2016) would help to answer these questions more directly.…”