The phase of ongoing EEG oscillations predicts visual perception
- Creators
- Busch, Niko A.
- Dubois, Julien
- VanRullen, Rufin
Abstract
Oscillations are ubiquitous in electrical recordings of brain activity. While the amplitude of ongoing oscillatory activity is known to correlate with various aspects of perception, the influence of oscillatory phase on perception remains unknown. In particular, since phase varies on a much faster timescale than the more sluggish amplitude fluctuations, phase effects could reveal the fine-grained neural mechanisms underlying perception. We presented brief flashes of light at the individual luminance threshold while EEG was recorded. Although the stimulus on each trial was identical, subjects detected approximately half of the flashes (hits) and entirely missed the other half (misses). Phase distributions across trials were compared between hits and misses. We found that shortly before stimulus onset, each of the two distributions exhibited significant phase concentration, but at different phase angles. This effect was strongest in the theta and alpha frequency bands. In this time–frequency range, oscillatory phase accounted for at least 16% of variability in detection performance and allowed the prediction of performance on the single-trial level. This finding indicates that the visual detection threshold fluctuates over time along with the phase of ongoing EEG activity. The results support the notion that ongoing oscillations shape our perception, possibly by providing a temporal reference frame for neural codes that rely on precise spike timing.
Additional Information
© 2009 Society for Neuroscience. Received Jan. 8, 2009; revised April 2, 2009; accepted May 19, 2009. We thank Leila Reddy and James Macdonald for their useful comments. This work was supported by grants from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (Project ANR 06JCJC-0154), the Fyssen Foundation, and the European Young Investigator Awards to R.V. and the "European Platform for Life Sciences, Mind Sciences, and the Humanities" grant by the Volkswagen Stiftung to N.A.B.Attached Files
Published - Busch2009p4750J_Neurosci.pdf
Supplemental Material - 1.pdf
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Additional details
- PMCID
- PMC6665641
- Eprint ID
- 14977
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20090812-085139211
- ANR 06JCJC-0154
- Agence Nationale pour la Recherche (ANR)
- Fyssen Foundation
- European Young Investigator Awards
- Volkswagen Stiftung
- Created
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2009-08-12Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field