Individual peak alpha frequency correlates with visual temporal resolution, but only under specific task conditions.

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Country of Publication: France NLM ID: 8918110 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1460-9568 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 0953816X NLM ISO Abbreviation: Eur J Neurosci Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: : Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell
Original Publication: Oxford, UK : Published on behalf of the European Neuroscience Association by Oxford University Press, c1989-

Visual Perception*/physiology ; Alpha Rhythm*/physiology; Humans ; Male ; Female ; Adult ; Young Adult ; Flicker Fusion/physiology ; Photic Stimulation/methods

The study of alpha band oscillations in the brain is a popular topic in cognitive neuroscience. A fair amount of research in recent years has focused on the potential role these oscillations may play in the discrete sampling of continuous sensory information. In particular, the question of whether or not peak frequency in the alpha band is linked with the temporal resolution of visual perception is a topic of ongoing debate. Some studies have reported a correlation between the two, whereas others were unable to observe a link. It is unclear whether these conflicting findings are due to differing methodologies and/or low statistical power, or due to the absence of a true relationship. Replication studies are needed to gain better insight into this matter. In the current study, we replicated an experiment published in a 2015 paper by Samaha and Postle. Additionally, we expanded on this study by adding an extra behavioural task, the critical flicker fusion task, to investigate if any links with peak alpha frequency are generalizable across multiple measures for visual temporal resolution. We succeeded in replicating some, but not all of Samaha and Postle's findings. Our partial replication suggests that there may be a link between visual temporal resolution and peak alpha frequency. However, this relationship may be very small and only apparent for specific stimulus parameters. The correlations found in our study did not generalize to other behavioural measures for visual temporal resolution.
(© 2024 The Author(s). European Journal of Neuroscience published by Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

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Provost's Postgraduate Award 2019 Trinity College Dublin

Keywords: alpha peak frequency; critical flicker fusion; perception speed; temporal resolution; vision

Date Created: 20240824 Date Completed: 20241003 Latest Revision: 20241003

20241003

10.1111/ejn.16519

39180268