Elsevier

NeuroImage

Volume 37, Issue 4, 1 October 2007, Pages 1465-1473
NeuroImage

Prestimulus oscillations predict visual perception performance between and within subjects

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.07.011Get rights and content

Abstract

In the present study, the electrophysiological correlates of perceiving shortly presented visual stimuli are examined. In particular, we investigated the differences in the prestimulus EEG between subjects who were able to discriminate between four shortly presented stimuli (Perceivers) and subjects who were not (Non-Perceivers). Additionally, we investigated the differences between the subjects perceived and unperceived trials. The results show that Perceivers exhibited lower prestimulus alpha power than Non-Perceivers. Analysis of the prestimulus EEG between perceived and unperceived trials revealed that the perception of a stimulus is related to low phase coupling in the alpha frequency range (8–12 Hz) and high phase coupling in the beta and gamma frequency range (20–45 Hz). Single trial analyses showed that perception performance can be predicted by phase coupling in the alpha, beta and gamma frequency range. The findings indicate that synchronous oscillations in the alpha frequency band inhibit the perception of shortly presented stimuli whereas synchrony in higher frequency ranges (> 20 Hz) enhances visual perception. We conclude that alpha, beta and gamma oscillations indicate the attentional state of a subject and thus are able to predict perception performance on a single trial basis.

Section snippets

Subjects

Thirty-five subjects participated in the experiment. Five subjects were excluded, either because their EEG was heavily contaminated by movement artefacts, or because their performance was significantly below chance level (< 17%; p < 0.01), indicating that they did not follow task instruction. From the remaining 30 subjects (21 females; mean age: 23.07; range: 20 to 36), 26 were right-handed. All subjects gave written informed consent, had normal or corrected to normal vision, and reported no

Between-subjects analysis

Mean detection rate in the perception task was 42% with high variability ranging from performance at chance level (around 25%) to nearly perfect performance (90%). Perceivers showed a mean detection rate of 58% and Non-Perceivers showed a mean detection rate of 26%, which is around chance level. Analysis of power in the range of 4 to 70 Hz revealed that Perceivers showed significantly less pre-stimulus alpha power (8 to 12 Hz) than Non-Perceivers (Z =  2.261; p < 0.05). No significant effects were

Discussion

The main findings of this study are that ongoing alpha, beta, and gamma oscillations predict perception performance between and within subjects. Different measures of these oscillations were related to perception performance, though in different ways. Whereas alpha power distinguished between subjects who were able to perceive the stimulus and the subjects who were not, alpha, beta, and gamma phase coupling was capable to predict perception performance within subjects on a single trial basis.

A

Acknowledgments

The research presented here was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) awarded to Karl-Heinz Bäuml, Christoph Herrmann, and Wolfgang Klimesch (FOR-448). The authors would like to thank Claus Arnold, Christof Kuhbandner, Bernhard Pastötter, Bernhard Spitzer, and Maria Wimber for helpful suggestions. The authors also thank Anna-Sofie Kunz and Verena Bauer for data acquisition.

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