The power of human brain magnetoencephalographic signals can be modulated up or down by changes in an attentive visual task.

Full Abstract

This paper presents evidence indicating that the signals generated by neural responses to visual input can be either enhanced by increasing or suppressed by decreasing the area of the stimuli to which attention is directed. We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to measure the frequency-tagged steady-state visual evoked responses of 11 subjects presented with two superimposed images flickering at different frequencies. Each image consisted of seven parallel bars of equal length; in any image, all bars were either red or green and either horizontal or vertical. At randomly chosen times during the experiments, any one of the three middle bars in either image transiently increased or decreased in width. Subjects were asked to attend to one image and ignore the other and to respond to changes in bar width in the attended image with a key press. In one condition, subject responses were required for changes in any of the three central bars of the attended image. We found that visual steady-state evoked responses to the attended image were enhanced relative to those evoked by the unattended image in this condition. In a second condition, subject responses were required for changes only in the middle bar. In this condition, the responses to the attended image were suppressed relative to those of the unattended image. These results may reflect relative differences in the synchronization and desynchronization of responding neuronal populations.

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Author information

Author/s: Chen, Yanqing (Y); Seth, Anil K (AK); Gally, Joseph A (JA); Edelman, Gerald M (GM);

Affiliation: The Neurosciences Institute, 10640 John Jay Hopkins Drive, La Jolla, CA 92121, USA. chen(-atsign-)nsi.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Clinical Trial; Journal Article; Randomized Controlled Trial; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Mar; vol 100 (issue 6) : pp 3501-6

Dates: Created 2003/03/19; Completed 2003/04/21; Revised 2008/11/20;

PMID: 12626756, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Attention - physiology
Brain - physiology
Evoked Potentials, Visual
Female

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