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Frequency Specific Modulation of Human Somatosensory Cortex

Oscillatory neuronal activities are commonly observed in response to sensory stimulation. However, their functional roles are still the subject of debate. One-way to probe the roles of oscillatory neural activities is to deliver alternating current to the cortex at biologically relevant frequencies...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Feurra, Matteo, Paulus, Walter, Walsh, Vincent, Kanai, Ryota
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Research Foundation 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3111335/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21713181
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00013
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author Feurra, Matteo
Paulus, Walter
Walsh, Vincent
Kanai, Ryota
author_facet Feurra, Matteo
Paulus, Walter
Walsh, Vincent
Kanai, Ryota
author_sort Feurra, Matteo
collection PubMed
description Oscillatory neuronal activities are commonly observed in response to sensory stimulation. However, their functional roles are still the subject of debate. One-way to probe the roles of oscillatory neural activities is to deliver alternating current to the cortex at biologically relevant frequencies and examine whether such stimulation influences perception and cognition. In this study, we tested whether transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) over the primary somatosensory cortex (SI) could elicit tactile sensations in humans in a frequency-dependent manner. We tested the effectiveness of tACS over SI at frequency bands ranging from 2 to 70 Hz. Our results show that stimulation in alpha (10–14 Hz) and high gamma (52–70 Hz) frequency range produces a tactile sensation in the contralateral hand. A weaker effect was also observed for beta (16–20 Hz) stimulation. These findings highlight the frequency dependency of effective tACS over SI with the effective frequencies corresponding to those observed in previous electroencephalography/magnetoencephalography studies of tactile perception. Our present study suggests that tACS could be used as a powerful online stimulation technique to reveal the causal roles of oscillatory brain activities.
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spelling pubmed-31113352011-06-27 Frequency Specific Modulation of Human Somatosensory Cortex Feurra, Matteo Paulus, Walter Walsh, Vincent Kanai, Ryota Front Psychol Psychology Oscillatory neuronal activities are commonly observed in response to sensory stimulation. However, their functional roles are still the subject of debate. One-way to probe the roles of oscillatory neural activities is to deliver alternating current to the cortex at biologically relevant frequencies and examine whether such stimulation influences perception and cognition. In this study, we tested whether transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) over the primary somatosensory cortex (SI) could elicit tactile sensations in humans in a frequency-dependent manner. We tested the effectiveness of tACS over SI at frequency bands ranging from 2 to 70 Hz. Our results show that stimulation in alpha (10–14 Hz) and high gamma (52–70 Hz) frequency range produces a tactile sensation in the contralateral hand. A weaker effect was also observed for beta (16–20 Hz) stimulation. These findings highlight the frequency dependency of effective tACS over SI with the effective frequencies corresponding to those observed in previous electroencephalography/magnetoencephalography studies of tactile perception. Our present study suggests that tACS could be used as a powerful online stimulation technique to reveal the causal roles of oscillatory brain activities. Frontiers Research Foundation 2011-02-02 /pmc/articles/PMC3111335/ /pubmed/21713181 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00013 Text en Copyright © 2011 Feurra, Paulus, Walsh and Kanai. http://www.frontiersin.org/licenseagreement This is an open-access article subject to an exclusive license agreement between the authors and Frontiers Media SA, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited.
spellingShingle Psychology
Feurra, Matteo
Paulus, Walter
Walsh, Vincent
Kanai, Ryota
Frequency Specific Modulation of Human Somatosensory Cortex
title Frequency Specific Modulation of Human Somatosensory Cortex
title_full Frequency Specific Modulation of Human Somatosensory Cortex
title_fullStr Frequency Specific Modulation of Human Somatosensory Cortex
title_full_unstemmed Frequency Specific Modulation of Human Somatosensory Cortex
title_short Frequency Specific Modulation of Human Somatosensory Cortex
title_sort frequency specific modulation of human somatosensory cortex
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3111335/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21713181
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00013
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