Brain stimulation competes with ongoing oscillations for control of spike timing in the primate brain.
Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) is a popular method for modulating brain activity noninvasively. In particular, tACS is often used as a targeted intervention that enhances a neural oscillation at a specific frequency to affect a particular behavior. However, these interventions o...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2022-05-01
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| Series: | PLoS Biology |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001650 |
| _version_ | 1817970932005732352 |
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| author | Matthew R Krause Pedro G Vieira Jean-Philippe Thivierge Christopher C Pack |
| author_facet | Matthew R Krause Pedro G Vieira Jean-Philippe Thivierge Christopher C Pack |
| author_sort | Matthew R Krause |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) is a popular method for modulating brain activity noninvasively. In particular, tACS is often used as a targeted intervention that enhances a neural oscillation at a specific frequency to affect a particular behavior. However, these interventions often yield highly variable results. Here, we provide a potential explanation for this variability: tACS competes with the brain's ongoing oscillations. Using neural recordings from alert nonhuman primates, we find that when neural firing is independent of ongoing brain oscillations, tACS readily entrains spiking activity, but when neurons are strongly entrained to ongoing oscillations, tACS often causes a decrease in entrainment instead. Consequently, tACS can yield categorically different results on neural activity, even when the stimulation protocol is fixed. Mathematical analysis suggests that this competition is likely to occur under many experimental conditions. Attempting to impose an external rhythm on the brain may therefore often yield precisely the opposite effect. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T20:41:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e05c7df39e784a78969012c698bfb2cc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1544-9173 1545-7885 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T20:41:11Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS Biology |
| spelling | doaj.art-e05c7df39e784a78969012c698bfb2cc2022-12-22T02:30:53ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Biology1544-91731545-78852022-05-01205e300165010.1371/journal.pbio.3001650Brain stimulation competes with ongoing oscillations for control of spike timing in the primate brain.Matthew R KrausePedro G VieiraJean-Philippe ThiviergeChristopher C PackTranscranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) is a popular method for modulating brain activity noninvasively. In particular, tACS is often used as a targeted intervention that enhances a neural oscillation at a specific frequency to affect a particular behavior. However, these interventions often yield highly variable results. Here, we provide a potential explanation for this variability: tACS competes with the brain's ongoing oscillations. Using neural recordings from alert nonhuman primates, we find that when neural firing is independent of ongoing brain oscillations, tACS readily entrains spiking activity, but when neurons are strongly entrained to ongoing oscillations, tACS often causes a decrease in entrainment instead. Consequently, tACS can yield categorically different results on neural activity, even when the stimulation protocol is fixed. Mathematical analysis suggests that this competition is likely to occur under many experimental conditions. Attempting to impose an external rhythm on the brain may therefore often yield precisely the opposite effect.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001650 |
| spellingShingle | Matthew R Krause Pedro G Vieira Jean-Philippe Thivierge Christopher C Pack Brain stimulation competes with ongoing oscillations for control of spike timing in the primate brain. PLoS Biology |
| title | Brain stimulation competes with ongoing oscillations for control of spike timing in the primate brain. |
| title_full | Brain stimulation competes with ongoing oscillations for control of spike timing in the primate brain. |
| title_fullStr | Brain stimulation competes with ongoing oscillations for control of spike timing in the primate brain. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Brain stimulation competes with ongoing oscillations for control of spike timing in the primate brain. |
| title_short | Brain stimulation competes with ongoing oscillations for control of spike timing in the primate brain. |
| title_sort | brain stimulation competes with ongoing oscillations for control of spike timing in the primate brain |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001650 |
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