Entraining the brain? Effects of rhythmic brain stimulation protocols on oscillatory brain activity and behaviour

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Entraining the brain? Effects of rhythmic brain stimulation protocols on oscillatory brain activity and behaviour Gregor Thut1* and Vincenzo Romei2 1 University of Glasgow, United Kingdom 2 University College London, United Kingdom Brain oscillations in distinct frequency bands have been related to specific brain functions, such as sleep slow-waves to memory consolidation, posterior alpha-activity in wake participants to sensory input regulation and gamma-activity to visual feature integration, among other cognitive activities. However, with these relations revealed using mainly electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG), the nature of these links remains unknown (whether only correlative, or causal instead). Based on new findings and protocols for transcranial brain stimulation, this symposium explores whether brain oscillations can be entrained by rhythmic stimulation protocols to thereby bias performance in desired directions. This would favour a causal relation between brain oscillations and functions, and likely prove highly beneficial for the study of human brain rhythms. By entrainment of brain rhythms, specific hypothesis on the nature of the link between various brain oscillations and aspects of perception and performance could be tested. By controlling brain oscillations in specific patient groups, the contributions of these oscillations to disease or rehabilitation could be probed. The talks of this symposium cover rhythmic stimulation protocols, such as (i) rhythmic bursts of transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), (ii) transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS), (iii) transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), (iv) transcranial electric stimulation (TES) and (v) optogenetics. Using concurrent EEG recordings in humans and intra- and extracellular recordings in animals, the talks provide initial, supportive evidence for entrainment through rhythmic stimulation protocols, as well as initial pointers to possible, exciting future developments Keywords: brain oscillations, EEG, MEG, rTMS, TACs, tDCS Conference: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Symposium: Oral Presentation Topic: Symposium 10: Entraining the brain? Effects of rhythmic brain stimulation protocols on oscillatory brain activity and behavior Citation: Thut G and Romei V (2011). Entraining the brain? Effects of rhythmic brain stimulation protocols on oscillatory brain activity and behaviour. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00524 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 09 Nov 2011; Published Online: 28 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Gregor Thut, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom, gregor.thut@glasgow.ac.uk Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Gregor Thut Vincenzo Romei Google Gregor Thut Vincenzo Romei Google Scholar Gregor Thut Vincenzo Romei PubMed Gregor Thut Vincenzo Romei Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.