Transcranial alternating current phase modulates auditory click detection at the stimulation frequency
Evidence
Performance was above baseline in the 30 and 150° conditions, whereas it was below baseline in the 210, 270, and 330° conditions. Furthermore, performance was similar at 30 and 150°, and at 210 and 330° respectively, i.e., it was approximately symmetric with respect to the presumed best phase (90°). Although on average the best and worst performances were not associated with exactly opposite phases, possibly due to the contribution of higher harmonics, these observations match well the characteristics of the hypothesized 4-Hz cycle. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4798
Experiment 1 revealed that click detection under 4-Hz tACS is modulated by tACS phase: performance was significantly better during one half of the 4-Hz tACS cycle than during the opposite half. Performance without tACS was intermediate, but did not differ significantly. The tACS phase effect was strongest in the vicinity of the tACS frequency but not strictly frequency-specific as it extended to higher frequencies. Overall, these data replicate the findings by Neuling et al. ( 2012 ), indicating that auditory effects of tACS phase are reproducible. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4807
Categorization
- QUESTION: Does tACS non-invasively entrain auditory processing in a phase-dependent way that might generalize to other sensory or cognitive tasks?
- XREF: Connects to the reader’s knowledge of auditory scene analysis and entrainment mechanisms from earlier chapters on temporal coherence. — connects to: tACS phase significantly modulates click detection in normal-hearing listeners; tACS boosts loudness of click trains temporally coherent with entrained oscillations; Auditory detection of near-threshold sounds depends on the phase of ongoing brain oscillations.
- corroborated: 4 independent passages support this claim — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4798; Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4807