scholarly journals Causal modulation of right fronto-parietal phase synchrony with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation during a conscious visual detection task

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chloé Stengel ◽  
Marine Vernet ◽  
Julià L. Amengual ◽  
Antoni Valero-Cabré

AbstractCorrelational evidence in non-human primates has reported evidence of increased frontoparietal high-beta band (22-30 Hz) synchrony during the endogenous allocation of visuospatial attention. But may the engagement of inter-regional synchrony at this specific frequency band provide the causal mechanism by which top-down processes are engaged and they facilitate visual perception in humans? Here we further analyzed electroencephalographic (EEG) signals from a group of healthy human participants who performed a conscious visual detection task, under the influence of brief rhythmic (30 Hz) or random bursts of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), with an identical number of pulses and duration, delivered to the right Frontal Eye Field (FEF) prior to the onset of a lateralized near-threshold target. We report increases of inter-regional synchronization in the high-beta band (25-35 Hz) between the electrode closest to the stimulated region (right FEF) and parietal leads, and increases of local inter-trial coherence in the same frequency band over parietal contacts, both driven by rhythmic but not random TMS patterns. Importantly, such increases were accompained by increases of visual sensitivity for left visual targets (contralateral to the stimulation) in the rhythmic but not the random TMS condition at the group level. These outcomes suggest that human high-beta synchrony between right frontal and parietal regions can be modulated non-invasively and that high-beta oscillatory activity across the right dorsal fronto-parietal network may contribute to the facilitation of conscious visual detection. Our study also supports future applications of non-invasive brain stimulation technologies for the manipulation of inter-regional synchrony, which could be administered to improve visual behaviors in healthy humans or neurological patients.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chloé Stengel ◽  
Marine Vernet ◽  
Julià L. Amengual ◽  
Antoni Valero-Cabré

AbstractCorrelational evidence in non-human primates has reported increases of fronto-parietal high-beta (22–30 Hz) synchrony during the top-down allocation of visuo-spatial attention. But may inter-regional synchronization at this specific frequency band provide a causal mechanism by which top-down attentional processes facilitate conscious visual perception? To address this question, we analyzed electroencephalographic (EEG) signals from a group of healthy participants who performed a conscious visual detection task while we delivered brief (4 pulses) rhythmic (30 Hz) or random bursts of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to the right Frontal Eye Field (FEF) prior to the onset of a lateralized target. We report increases of inter-regional synchronization in the high-beta band (25–35 Hz) between the electrode closest to the stimulated region (the right FEF) and right parietal EEG leads, and increases of local inter-trial coherence within the same frequency band over bilateral parietal EEG contacts, both driven by rhythmic but not random TMS patterns. Such increases were accompained by improvements of conscious visual sensitivity for left visual targets in the rhythmic but not the random TMS condition. These outcomes suggest that high-beta inter-regional synchrony can be modulated non-invasively and that high-beta oscillatory activity across the right dorsal fronto-parietal network may contribute to the facilitation of conscious visual perception. Our work supports future applications of non-invasive brain stimulation to restore impaired visually-guided behaviors by operating on top-down attentional modulatory mechanisms.


2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 1109-1120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Hélène Grosbras ◽  
Tomáš Paus

When looking at one object, human subjects can shift their attention to another object in their visual field without moving the eyes. Such shifts of attention activate the same brain regions as those involved in the execution of eye movements. Here we investigate the role of one of the main cortical oculomotor area, namely, the frontal eye field (FEF), in shifts of attention. We used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a technique known to disrupt transiently eye-movements preparation. We hypothesized that if the FEF is a necessary element in the network involved in shifting attention without moving the eyes, then TMS should also disrupt visuospatial attention. For each volunteer, we positioned the TMS coil over the probabilistic anatomical location of the FEF, and we verified that single pulses delayed eye movements. We then applied TMS during a visuospatial attention task. In this task, a central arrow directed shifts of attention and the subject responded by a keypress to a subsequent visual peripheral target without moving the eyes from the central fixation point. In a few trials, the cue was invalid or uninformative, yielding slower responses than when the cue was valid. We delivered single pulses either 53 msec before or 70 msec after target onset. Contrary to our prediction, the main effect of the stimulation was a decrease in reaction time when it was applied 53 msec before target onset. TMS over the left hemisphere facilitated responses to targets in the right hemifield only and for all cueing conditions, whereas TMS over the right hemisphere had a bilateral effect for valid and neutral but not invalid cueing. Thus, TMS interfered with shift of attention only in the case of right hemisphere stimulation: it increased the cost of invalid cueing. Our results suggest that TMS over the FEF facilitates visual detection, and thereby reduces reaction time. This finding provides new insights into the role of the human FEF in processing visual information. The functional asymmetry observed for both facilitation of visual detection and interference with shifts of attention provides further evidence for the dominance of the right hemisphere for those processes. Our results also underline that the disruptive or facilitative effect of TMS over a given region depends upon the behavioral context.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marine Vernet ◽  
Chloé Stengel ◽  
Romain Quentin ◽  
Julià L. Amengual ◽  
Antoni Valero-Cabré

AbstractPrior evidence supports the critical role of oscillatory activity in cognitive function, but are cerebral oscillations simply correlated or causally linked to specific aspects of visual cognition? Here, EEG signals were recorded on humans performing a conscious visual detection task, while they received briefrhythmicorrandomnoninvasive stimulation patterns delivered to the right Frontal Eye Field prior to the onset of a lateralized target. Compared torandompatterns,rhythmichigh-beta patterns led to greater entrainment of local oscillations (i.e., increased power and phase alignment at the stimulation frequency), and to higher conscious detection of contralateral targets. When stimulation succeeded in enhancing visual detection, the magnitude of oscillation entrainment correlated with visual performance increases. Our study demonstrates a causal link between high-beta oscillatory activity in the Frontal Eye Field and conscious visual perception. Furthermore, it supports future applications of brain stimulation to manipulate local synchrony and improve or restore impaired visual behaviors.


2005 ◽  
Vol 93 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jen-Tse Chen ◽  
Yung-Yang Lin ◽  
Din-E Shan ◽  
Zin-An Wu ◽  
Mark Hallett ◽  
...  

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the motor cortex can interrupt voluntary contralateral rhythmic limb movements. Using the method of “resetting index” (RI), our study investigated the TMS effect on different types of bimanual movements. Six normal subjects participated. For unimanual movement, each subject tapped either the right or left index finger at a comfortable rate. For bimanual movement, index fingers of both hands tapped in the same (in-phase) direction or in the opposite (antiphase) direction. TMS was applied to each hemisphere separately at various intensities from 0.5 to 1.5 times motor threshold (MT). TMS interruption of rhythm was quantified by RI. For the unimanual movements, TMS disrupted both contralateral and ipsilateral rhythmic hand movements, although the effect was much less in the ipsilateral hand. For the bimanual in-phase task, TMS could simultaneously reset the rhythmic movements of both hands, but the effect on the contralateral hand was less and the effect on the ipsilateral hand was more compared with the unimanual tasks. Similar effects were seen from right and left hemisphere stimulation. TMS had little effect on the bimanual antiphase task. The equal effect of right and left hemisphere stimulation indicates that neither motor cortex is dominant for simple bimanual in-phase movement. The smaller influence of contralateral stimulation and the greater effect of ipsilateral stimulation during bimanual in-phase movement compared with unimanual movement suggest hemispheric coupling. The antiphase movements were resistant to TMS disruption, and this suggests that control of rhythm differs in the 2 tasks. TMS produced a transient asynchrony of movements on the 2 sides, indicating that both motor cortices might be downstream of the clocking command or that the clocking is a consequence of the 2 hemispheres communicating equally with each other.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Yoshihiro Noda ◽  
Mera S. Barr ◽  
Reza Zomorrodi ◽  
Robin F. H. Cash ◽  
Pantelis Lioumis ◽  
...  

Background: The combination of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with electroencephalography (EEG) allows for non-invasive investigation of cortical response and connectivity in human cortex. This study aimed to examine the amplitudes and latencies of each TMS-evoked potential (TEP) component induced by single-pulse TMS (spTMS) to the left motor (M1) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) among healthy young participants (YNG), older participants (OLD), and patients with schizophrenia (SCZ). Methods: We compared the spatiotemporal characteristics of TEPs induced by spTMS among the groups. Results: Compared to YNG, M1-spTMS induced lower amplitudes of N45 and P180 in OLD and a lower amplitude of P180 in SCZ, whereas the DLPFC-spTMS induced a lower N45 in OLD. Further, OLD demonstrated latency delays in P60 after M1-spTMS and in N45-P60 over the right central region after left DLPFC-spTMS, whereas SCZ demonstrated latency delays in N45-P60 over the midline and right central regions after DLPFC-spTMS. Conclusions: These findings suggest that inhibitory and excitatory mechanisms mediating TEPs may be altered in OLD and SCZ. The amplitude and latency changes of TEPs with spTMS may reflect underlying neurophysiological changes in OLD and SCZ, respectively. The spTMS administered to M1 and the DLPFC can probe cortical functions by examining TEPs. Thus, TMS-EEG can be used to study changes in cortical connectivity and signal propagation from healthy to pathological brains.


2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 180-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flávia Paes ◽  
Tathiana Baczynski ◽  
Felipe Novaes ◽  
Tamires Marinho ◽  
Oscar Arias-Carrión ◽  
...  

Objectives: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a common and debilitating anxiety disorders. However, few studies had been dedicated to the neurobiology underlying SAD until the last decade. Rates of non-responders to standard methods of treatment remain unsatisfactorily high of approximately 25%, including SAD. Advances in our understanding of SAD could lead to new treatment strategies. A potential non invasive therapeutic option is repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). Thus, we reported two cases of SAD treated with rTMS Methods: The bibliographical search used Pubmed/Medline, ISI Web of Knowledge and Scielo databases. The terms chosen for the search were: anxiety disorders, neuroimaging, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation. Results: In most of the studies conducted on anxiety disorders, except SAD, the right prefrontal cortex (PFC), more specifically dorsolateral PFC was stimulated, with marked results when applying high-rTMS compared with studies stimulating the opposite side. However, according to the “valence hypothesis”, anxiety disorders might be characterized by an interhemispheric imbalance associated with increased right-hemispheric activity. With regard to the two cases treated with rTMS, we found a decrease in BDI, BAI and LSAS scores from baseline to follow-up. Conclusion: We hypothesize that the application of low-rTMS over the right medial PFC (mPFC; the main structure involved in SAD circuitry) combined with high-rTMS over the left mPFC, for at least 4 weeks on consecutive weekdays, may induce a balance in brain activity, opening an attractive therapeutic option for the treatment of SAD.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isaac N. Gomez ◽  
Kara Ormiston ◽  
Ian Greenhouse

AbstractAction preparation involves widespread modulation of motor system excitability, but the precise mechanisms are unknown. In this study, we investigated whether intracortical inhibition changes in task-irrelevant muscle representations during action preparation. We used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) combined with electromyography in healthy human adults to measure motor evoked potentials (MEPs) and cortical silent periods (CSPs) in task-irrelevant muscles during the preparatory period of simple delayed response tasks. In Experiment 1, participants responded with the left-index finger in one task condition and the right-index finger in another task condition, while MEPs and CSPs were measured from the contralateral non-responding and tonically contracted index finger. During Experiment 2, participants responded with the right pinky finger while MEPs and CSPs were measured from the tonically contracted left-index finger. In both experiments, MEPs and CSPs were compared between the task preparatory period and a resting intertrial baseline. The CSP duration during response preparation decreased from baseline in every case. A laterality difference was also observed in Experiment 1, with a greater CSP reduction during the preparation of left finger responses compared to right finger responses. MEP amplitudes showed no modulation during movement preparation in any of the three response conditions. These findings indicate cortical inhibition associated with task-irrelevant muscles is transiently released during action preparation and implicate a novel mechanism for the controlled and coordinated release of motor cortex inhibition.New & NoteworthyIn this study we observed the first evidence of a release of intracortical inhibition in task-irrelevant muscle representations during response preparation. We applied transcranial magnetic stimulation to elicit cortical silent periods in task-irrelevant muscles during response preparation and observed a consistent decrease in the silent period duration relative to a resting baseline. These findings address the question of whether cortical mechanisms underlie widespread modulation in motor excitability during response preparation.


Cortex ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 101 ◽  
pp. 234-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max Coltheart ◽  
Rochelle Cox ◽  
Paul Sowman ◽  
Hannah Morgan ◽  
Amanda Barnier ◽  
...  

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