Spontaneous Neural Oscillations Bias Perception by Modulating Baseline Excitability

Overview

Journal J Neurosci

Specialty Neurology

Date 2017 Jan 27

PMID 28123017

Citations 120

Authors

Luca Iemi

Maximilien Chaumon

Sebastien M Crouzet

Niko A Busch

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Significance Statement: Spontaneous fluctuations of brain activity explain why a faint sensory stimulus is sometimes perceived and sometimes not. The prevailing view is that heightened neural excitability, indexed by decreased α oscillations, promotes better perceptual performance. Here, we provide evidence that heightened neural excitability instead reflects a state of biased perception, during which a person is more likely to see a stimulus, whether or not it is actually present. Therefore, we propose that changes in neural excitability leave the precision of sensory processing unaffected. These results establish the link between spontaneous brain activity and the variability in human perception.

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