The effect of LTP- and LTD-like visual stimulation on modulation of human orientation discrimination

Abstract

Studies showing that repetitive visual stimulation protocols alter perception and induce cortical reorganization, as well-reported for the tactile domain, have been sparse. In this study, we investigated how “long-term potentiation [LTP]-like” and “long-term depression [LTD]-like” repetitive visual stimulation affects orientation discrimination ability in human observers. LTP-like stimulation with features most closely resembling the stimuli used during behavioral assessment evoked the largest improvement, while the effects were smaller in protocols that differed in shape or orientation features. This gradient suggests lower learning specificity than classical perceptual learning experiments, possibly because of an interplay of task- and feature-based factors. All modulatory effects of repetitive stimulation were superimposed on top of spontaneous task learning. Moreover, blockwise analysis revealed that LTP-like stimulation, in contrast to LTD-like or sham stimulation, prevented a loss of practice-related gain of orientation discrimination thresholds. This observation highlights a critical role of LTP-like stimulation for consolidation, typically observed during sleep.

Differential effects of the temporal and spatial distribution of audiovisual stimuli on cross‐modal spatial recalibration

“…Exposure‐based learning has most often been investigated in the context of unisensory perceptual learning studies (Beste & Dinse, 2013). For instance, prolonged passive sensory stimulation has been shown to enhance tactile acuity (Dinse, Ragert, Pleger, Schwenkreis, & Tegenthoff, 2003; Godde, Stauffenberg, Spengler, & Dinse, 2000), visual luminance change detection (Beste, Wascher, Güntürkün, & Dinse, 2011; Marzoll, Saygi, & Dinse, 2018), and face identity detection (Pegado, Vankrunkelsven, Steyaert, Boets, & Op de Beeck, 2016). Importantly, these unisensory learning effects depended on the temporal pattern of stimulation.…”

High frequency visual stimulation primes gamma oscillations for visually-evoked phase reset and enhances spatial acuity

“…Our findings provide mechanistic into the cellular and circuit level response of the mouse visual cortex to high (HFS) and low (LFS) frequency repetitive visual stimulation, which may translate to other species including humans. High frequency (20Hz) flicker of sinusoidal gratings induces a long-lasting improvement in orientation discrimination in human subjects (Beste et al, 2011;Marzoll et al, 2018). Similarly, 20Hz, but not 1 Hz, presentation of an oriented bar improved orientation discrimination (Marzoll et al, 2018).…”

“…High frequency (20Hz) flicker of sinusoidal gratings induces a long-lasting improvement in orientation discrimination in human subjects (Beste et al, 2011;Marzoll et al, 2018). Similarly, 20Hz, but not 1 Hz, presentation of an oriented bar improved orientation discrimination (Marzoll et al, 2018). Perceptual improvements via stimulation with a high temporal frequency stimulus are not limited to the visual domains, as 10Hz flickering visual stimulation presented during a word recognition task improved word recall (Williams, 2001;Williams et al, 2006).…”

Regulation of expression site and generalizability of experience-dependent plasticity in visual cortex

“…Exposure to a 10 Hz flickering visual stimulation presented during a word recognition task also improved performance (Williams, 2001;Williams et al, 2006). In contrast, low frequency stimulation (1 Hz visual stimulus) did not impact visual discrimination (Marzoll et al, 2018). Transcranial brain stimulation techniques including direct current stimulation (tDCS), alternating current stimulation (tACS), and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) also alter performance on sensory and memory tasks.…”

“…This was surprising given that the preferred temporal frequency for drifting gratings observed in anesthetized and awake mice is 2 Hz (Niell and Stryker, 2008), however higher temporal frequencies are above flicker fusion in the murine visual system (Durand et al, 2016;Porciatti et al, 1999;Tanimoto et al, 2015). Our use of high frequency repetitive visual stimulation to induce brain wave entrainment and enhancement of sensory response strength was motivated by recent work in humans in which experiments in humans in which high frequency visual stimulation (20 Hz flicker of elongated bars) induced a long-lasting improvement in orientation discrimination (Beste et al, 2011;Marzoll et al, 2018). Exposure to a 10 Hz flickering visual stimulation presented during a word recognition task also improved performance (Williams, 2001;Williams et al, 2006).…”