Cargando…

Occipital Alpha Activity during Stimulus Processing Gates the Information Flow to Object-Selective Cortex

Given the limited processing capabilities of the sensory system, it is essential that attended information is gated to downstream areas, whereas unattended information is blocked. While it has been proposed that alpha band (8–13 Hz) activity serves to route information to downstream regions by inhib...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Zumer, Johanna M., Scheeringa, René, Schoffelen, Jan-Mathijs, Norris, David G., Jensen, Ole
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4205112/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25333286
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001965
_version_ 1782340658456952832
author Zumer, Johanna M.
Scheeringa, René
Schoffelen, Jan-Mathijs
Norris, David G.
Jensen, Ole
author_facet Zumer, Johanna M.
Scheeringa, René
Schoffelen, Jan-Mathijs
Norris, David G.
Jensen, Ole
author_sort Zumer, Johanna M.
collection PubMed
description Given the limited processing capabilities of the sensory system, it is essential that attended information is gated to downstream areas, whereas unattended information is blocked. While it has been proposed that alpha band (8–13 Hz) activity serves to route information to downstream regions by inhibiting neuronal processing in task-irrelevant regions, this hypothesis remains untested. Here we investigate how neuronal oscillations detected by electroencephalography in visual areas during working memory encoding serve to gate information reflected in the simultaneously recorded blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) signals recorded by functional magnetic resonance imaging in downstream ventral regions. We used a paradigm in which 16 participants were presented with faces and landscapes in the right and left hemifields; one hemifield was attended and the other unattended. We observed that decreased alpha power contralateral to the attended object predicted the BOLD signal representing the attended object in ventral object-selective regions. Furthermore, increased alpha power ipsilateral to the attended object predicted a decrease in the BOLD signal representing the unattended object. We also found that the BOLD signal in the dorsal attention network inversely correlated with visual alpha power. This is the first demonstration, to our knowledge, that oscillations in the alpha band are implicated in the gating of information from the visual cortex to the ventral stream, as reflected in the representationally specific BOLD signal. This link of sensory alpha to downstream activity provides a neurophysiological substrate for the mechanism of selective attention during stimulus processing, which not only boosts the attended information but also suppresses distraction. Although previous studies have shown a relation between the BOLD signal from the dorsal attention network and the alpha band at rest, we demonstrate such a relation during a visuospatial task, indicating that the dorsal attention network exercises top-down control of visual alpha activity.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4205112
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2014
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-42051122014-10-27 Occipital Alpha Activity during Stimulus Processing Gates the Information Flow to Object-Selective Cortex Zumer, Johanna M. Scheeringa, René Schoffelen, Jan-Mathijs Norris, David G. Jensen, Ole PLoS Biol Research Article Given the limited processing capabilities of the sensory system, it is essential that attended information is gated to downstream areas, whereas unattended information is blocked. While it has been proposed that alpha band (8–13 Hz) activity serves to route information to downstream regions by inhibiting neuronal processing in task-irrelevant regions, this hypothesis remains untested. Here we investigate how neuronal oscillations detected by electroencephalography in visual areas during working memory encoding serve to gate information reflected in the simultaneously recorded blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) signals recorded by functional magnetic resonance imaging in downstream ventral regions. We used a paradigm in which 16 participants were presented with faces and landscapes in the right and left hemifields; one hemifield was attended and the other unattended. We observed that decreased alpha power contralateral to the attended object predicted the BOLD signal representing the attended object in ventral object-selective regions. Furthermore, increased alpha power ipsilateral to the attended object predicted a decrease in the BOLD signal representing the unattended object. We also found that the BOLD signal in the dorsal attention network inversely correlated with visual alpha power. This is the first demonstration, to our knowledge, that oscillations in the alpha band are implicated in the gating of information from the visual cortex to the ventral stream, as reflected in the representationally specific BOLD signal. This link of sensory alpha to downstream activity provides a neurophysiological substrate for the mechanism of selective attention during stimulus processing, which not only boosts the attended information but also suppresses distraction. Although previous studies have shown a relation between the BOLD signal from the dorsal attention network and the alpha band at rest, we demonstrate such a relation during a visuospatial task, indicating that the dorsal attention network exercises top-down control of visual alpha activity. Public Library of Science 2014-10-21 /pmc/articles/PMC4205112/ /pubmed/25333286 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001965 Text en © 2014 Zumer et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Zumer, Johanna M.
Scheeringa, René
Schoffelen, Jan-Mathijs
Norris, David G.
Jensen, Ole
Occipital Alpha Activity during Stimulus Processing Gates the Information Flow to Object-Selective Cortex
title Occipital Alpha Activity during Stimulus Processing Gates the Information Flow to Object-Selective Cortex
title_full Occipital Alpha Activity during Stimulus Processing Gates the Information Flow to Object-Selective Cortex
title_fullStr Occipital Alpha Activity during Stimulus Processing Gates the Information Flow to Object-Selective Cortex
title_full_unstemmed Occipital Alpha Activity during Stimulus Processing Gates the Information Flow to Object-Selective Cortex
title_short Occipital Alpha Activity during Stimulus Processing Gates the Information Flow to Object-Selective Cortex
title_sort occipital alpha activity during stimulus processing gates the information flow to object-selective cortex
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4205112/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25333286
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001965
work_keys_str_mv AT zumerjohannam occipitalalphaactivityduringstimulusprocessinggatestheinformationflowtoobjectselectivecortex
AT scheeringarene occipitalalphaactivityduringstimulusprocessinggatestheinformationflowtoobjectselectivecortex
AT schoffelenjanmathijs occipitalalphaactivityduringstimulusprocessinggatestheinformationflowtoobjectselectivecortex
AT norrisdavidg occipitalalphaactivityduringstimulusprocessinggatestheinformationflowtoobjectselectivecortex
AT jensenole occipitalalphaactivityduringstimulusprocessinggatestheinformationflowtoobjectselectivecortex