The chronometry of visual perception: Review of occipital TMS masking studies

Graaf, Tom A. de; Koivisto, Mika; Jacobs, Christianne; Sack, Alexander T.

doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.06.017

Cited by 81 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 101 publications

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“…Thus, TMS can only target the two lower (and not upper) of the four stimulus-locations probed during our memory task. Previous studies have relied on this anatomical feature to contrast behavioral performance between a ‘TMS quadrant’ (usually the lower left) and a ‘control quadrant’ (usually the upper right) [26,48–50]. In the current task, memory could be cued in all four visual field quadrants.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of early visual cortex transcranial magnetic stimulation on visual working memory precision and guess rate

et al. 2017

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Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that activity patterns in early visual areas predict stimulus properties actively maintained in visual working memory. Yet, the mechanisms by which such information is represented remain largely unknown. In this study, observers remembered the orientations of 4 briefly presented gratings, one in each quadrant of the visual field. A 10Hz Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) triplet was applied directly at stimulus offset, or midway through a 2-second delay, targeting early visual cortex corresponding retinotopically to a sample item in the lower hemifield. Memory for one of the four gratings was probed at random, and participants reported this orientation via method of adjustment. Recall errors were smaller when the visual field location targeted by TMS overlapped with that of the cued memory item, compared to errors for stimuli probed diagonally to TMS. This implied topographic storage of orientation information, and a memory-enhancing effect at the targeted location. Furthermore, early pulses impaired performance at all four locations, compared to late pulses. Next, response errors were fit empirically using a mixture model to characterize memory precision and guess rates. Memory was more precise for items proximal to the pulse location, irrespective of pulse timing. Guesses were more probable with early TMS pulses, regardless of stimulus location. Thus, while TMS administered at the offset of the stimulus array might disrupt early-phase consolidation in a non-topographic manner, TMS also boosts the precise representation of an item at its targeted retinotopic location, possibly by increasing attentional resources or by injecting a beneficial amount of noise.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of early visual cortex transcranial magnetic stimulation on visual working memory precision and guess rate

et al. 2017

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“…TMS-induced phosphene perception also depends on alpha phase, suggesting that alpha phase indexes visual excitability (Dugué, Marque, & VanRullen, 2011). TMS pulses prior to visual stimuli can abolish their perception, possibly through effects on alpha oscillations (de Graaf, Duecker, Fernholz, & Sack, 2015; de Graaf, Koivisto, Jacobs, & Sack, 2014; Jacobs, .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does alpha phase modulate visual target detection? Three experiments with tACS phase-based stimulus presentation

Graaf

Thomson

Janssens

et al. 2019

Preprint

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In recent years the influence of alpha (7-13 Hz) phase on visual processing has received a lot of attention. Magneto-/encephalography (M/EEG) studies showed that alpha phase indexes visual excitability and task performance. If occipital alpha phase is functionally relevant, the phase of occipital alpha-frequency transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) could modulate visual processing. Visual stimuli presented at different pre-determined, experimentally controlled, phases of the entraining tACS signal should then result in an oscillatory pattern of visual performance. We studied this in a series of experiments. In experiment one, we applied 10 Hz tACS to right occipital cortex (O2) and used independent psychophysical staircases to obtain contrast thresholds for detection of visual gratings in left or right hemifield, in six equidistant tACS phase conditions. In experiments two and three, tACS was at EEG-based individual peak alpha frequency. In experiment two, we measured detection rates for gratings with (pseudo-)fixed contrast levels. In experiment three, participants detected brief luminance changes in a custom-built LED device, at eight equidistant alpha phases. In none of the experiments did the primary outcome measure over phase conditions consistently reflect a one-cycle sinusoid as predicted. However, post-hoc analyses of reaction times (RT) suggested that tACS alpha phase did modulate RT in both experiments 1 and 2 (not measured in experiment 3). This observation is in line with the idea that alpha phase causally gates visual inputs through cortical excitability modulation.

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“…Due to its extensive effects on human perception, cognition and action, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is nowadays widely used in both basic neuroscientific research (e.g., during investigations of visual awareness [1], attention [2], speech [3] and motor processing [4]) and in clinical practice (with potential treatment domains [see guidelines on therapeutic use [5]] including medication-resistant major depressive disorder [6], post-stroke motor impairment [7], aphasia [8] and schizophrenia [9]). Despite this broad scope of application, knowledge of the precise neurophysiological effects of TMS is still incomplete.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phase-Amplitude Coupling of Neural Oscillations can be Effectively Probed with Concurrent TMS-EEG

Glim

Okazaki

Nakagawa

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Despite the widespread use of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), knowledge of its neurophysiological mode of action is still incomplete. Recently, TMS has been proposed to synchronise neural oscillators, and to thereby increase the detectability of corresponding oscillations at the population level. As oscillations in the human brain are known to interact within nested hierarchies via phase-amplitude coupling, TMS might also be able to increase the macroscopic detectability of such coupling. In a concurrent TMS-electroencephalography study, we therefore examined the technique's influence on theta-gamma, alpha-gamma and beta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling by delivering single-pulse TMS (sTMS) and repetitive TMS (rTMS) over the left motor cortex and right visual cortex of healthy participants. The rTMS pulse trains were of 5 Hz, 11 Hz and 23 Hz for the three coupling variations, respectively. Relative to sham stimulation, all conditions showed transient but significant increases in phase-amplitude coupling at the stimulation site. In addition, we observed enhanced coupling over various other cortical sites, with a more extensive propagation during rTMS than during sTMS. By indicating that scalp-recorded phase-amplitude coupling can be effectively probed with TMS, these findings open the door to the technique's application in manipulative dissections of such coupling during human cognition and behaviour.

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The chronometry of visual perception: Review of occipital TMS masking studies

Cited by 81 publications

References 101 publications

The impact of early visual cortex transcranial magnetic stimulation on visual working memory precision and guess rate

The impact of early visual cortex transcranial magnetic stimulation on visual working memory precision and guess rate

Does alpha phase modulate visual target detection? Three experiments with tACS phase-based stimulus presentation

Phase-Amplitude Coupling of Neural Oscillations can be Effectively Probed with Concurrent TMS-EEG

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