Distinct roles of forward and backward alpha-band waves in spatial visual attention
- CNRS, UMR5549, France
- CerCo - CNRS, France
Abstract
Previous research has associated alpha-band [8-12Hz] oscillations with inhibitory functions: for instance, several studies showed that visual attention increases alpha-band power in the hemisphere ipsilateral to the attended location. However, other studies demonstrated that alpha oscillations positively correlate with visual perception, hinting at different processes underlying their dynamics. Here, using an approach based on traveling waves, we demonstrate that there are two functionally distinct alpha-band oscillations propagating in different directions. We analyzed EEG recordings from three datasets of human participants performing a covert visual attention task (one new dataset with N=16, two previously published datasets with N=16 and N=31). Participants were instructed to detect a brief target by covertly attending to the screen's left or right side. Our analysis reveals two distinct processes: allocating attention to one hemifield increases top-down alpha-band waves propagating from frontal to occipital regions ipsilateral to the attended location, both with or without visual stimulation. These top-down oscillatory waves correlate positively with alpha-band power in frontal and occipital regions. Yet, different alpha-band waves propagate from occipital to frontal regions and contralateral to the attended location. Crucially, these forward waves were present only during visual stimulation, suggesting a separate mechanism related to visual processing. Together, these results reveal two distinct processes reflected by different propagation directions, demonstrating the importance of considering oscillations as traveling waves when characterizing their functional role.
Data availability
Three datasets have been analyzed in this study and all of them are available from the Open Science Framework (as specified in the 'Methods/Participants' section). Code to analyze the data is available here: https://github.com/artipago/Travelling-waves-EEG-2.0, as specified in the 'Methods/Statistical analysis' section
-
Distinct roles of forward and backward alpha-band waves in spatial visual attentionOSF, DOI: https://osf.io/PN784/.
-
Alpha-Band Oscillations Enable Spatially and Temporally Resolved Tracking of Covert Spatial AttentionOSF, https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/M64UE.
-
Neural Evidence for the Contribution of Active Suppression During Working Memory FilteringOSF, https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhx336.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
European Research Council (101075930)
- Andrea Alamia
Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-19-PI3A-0004)
- Rufin VanRullen
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Human subjects: This study adheres to the guidelines for research at the "Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition," and the protocol was approved by the local ethical committee "Commité de protection des Personnes Sud Méditerranée 1" (ethics approval number N˚ 2019-A02641-56).
Reviewing Editor
- Jonas Obleser, University of Lübeck, Germany
Publication history
- Preprint posted: August 18, 2022 (view preprint)
- Received: November 18, 2022
- Accepted: March 5, 2023
- Accepted Manuscript published: March 6, 2023 (version 1)
Copyright
© 2023, Alamia et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 298
- Page views
-
- 79
- Downloads
-
- 0
- Citations
Article citation count generated by polling the highest count across the following sources: Crossref, PubMed Central, Scopus.
Download links
A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
Distinct roles of forward and backward alpha-band waves in spatial visual attention
eLife 12:e85035.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.85035
Further reading
-
- Neuroscience
Pattern separation, or the process by which highly similar stimuli or experiences in memory are represented by non-overlapping neural ensembles, has typically been ascribed to processes supported by the hippocampus. Converging evidence from a wide range of studies, however, suggests that pattern separation is a multistage process supported by a network of brain regions. Based on this evidence, considered together with related findings from the interference resolution literature, we propose the ‘cortico-hippocampal pattern separation’ (CHiPS) framework, which asserts that brain regions involved in cognitive control play a significant role in pattern separation. Particularly, these regions may contribute to pattern separation by (1) resolving interference in sensory regions that project to the hippocampus, thus regulating its cortical input, or (2) directly modulating hippocampal processes in accordance with task demands. Considering recent interest in how hippocampal operations are modulated by goal states likely represented and regulated by extra-hippocampal regions, we argue that pattern separation is similarly supported by neocortical–hippocampal interactions.
-
- Medicine
- Neuroscience
Chronic, or persistent pain affects more than 10% of adults in the general population. This makes it one of the major physical and mental health care problems. Although pain is an important acute warning signal that allows the organism to take action before tissue damage occurs, it can become persistent and its role as a warning signal thereby inadequate. Although per definition, pain can only be labeled as persistent after 3 months, the trajectory from acute to persistent pain is likely to be determined very early and might even start at the time of injury. The biopsychosocial model has revolutionized our understanding of chronic pain and paved the way for psychological treatments for persistent pain, which routinely outperform other forms of treatment. This suggests that psychological processes could also be important in shaping the very early trajectory from acute to persistent pain and that targeting these processes could prevent the development of persistent pain. In this review, we develop an integrative model and suggest novel interventions during early pain trajectories, based on predictions from this model.
