Neuromodulation of brain power topography and network topology by prefrontal transcranial photobiomodulation

Objective. Transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) has shown promising benefits, including cognitive improvement, in healthy humans and in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. In this study, we aimed to identify key cortical regions that present significant changes caused by tPBM in the electroencephalogram (EEG) oscillation powers and functional connectivity in the healthy human brain. Approach. A 64-channel EEG was recorded from 45 healthy participants during a 13 min period consisting of a 2 min baseline, 8 min tPBM/sham intervention, and 3 min recovery. After pre-processing and normalizing the EEG data at the five EEG rhythms, cluster-based permutation tests were performed for multiple comparisons of spectral power topographies, followed by graph-theory analysis as a topological approach for quantification of brain connectivity metrics at global and nodal/cluster levels. Main results. EEG power enhancement was observed in clusters of channels over the frontoparietal regions in the alpha band and the centroparietal regions in the beta band. The global measures of the network revealed a reduction in synchronization, global efficiency, and small-worldness of beta band connectivity, implying an enhancement of brain network complexity. In addition, in the beta band, nodal graphical analysis demonstrated significant increases in local information integration and centrality over the frontal clusters, accompanied by a decrease in segregation over the bilateral frontal, left parietal, and left occipital regions. Significance. Frontal tPBM increased EEG alpha and beta powers in the frontal-central-parietal regions, enhanced the complexity of the global beta-wave brain network, and augmented local information flow and integration of beta oscillations across prefrontal cortical regions. This study sheds light on the potential link between electrophysiological effects and human cognitive improvement induced by tPBM.