Thut Gregor
Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
PLoS Biol. 2014 Dec 30;12(12):e1002032. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1002032. eCollection 2014 Dec.
Do neuronal oscillations play a causal role in brain function? In a study in this issue of PLOS Biology, Helfrich and colleagues address this long-standing question by attempting to drive brain oscillations using transcranial electrical current stimulation. Remarkably, they were able to manipulate visual perception by forcing brain oscillations of the left and right visual hemispheres into synchrony using oscillatory currents over both hemispheres. Under this condition, human observers more often perceived an inherently ambiguous visual stimulus in one of its perceptual instantiations. These findings shed light on the mechanisms underlying neuronal computation. They show that it is the neuronal oscillations that drive the visual experience, not the experience driving the oscillations. And they indicate that synchronized oscillatory activity groups brain areas into functional networks. This points to new ways for controlled experimental and possibly also clinical interventions for the study and modulation of brain oscillations and associated functions.
神经元振荡在脑功能中是否起着因果作用？在本期《公共科学图书馆·生物学》的一项研究中，赫尔弗里希及其同事试图通过经颅电流刺激来驱动脑振荡，以此解决这个长期存在的问题。值得注意的是，他们通过在两个半球上施加振荡电流，使左右视觉半球的脑振荡同步，从而能够操纵视觉感知。在这种情况下，人类观察者更常将一个本质上模棱两可的视觉刺激感知为其一种感知实例。这些发现揭示了神经元计算的潜在机制。它们表明是神经元振荡驱动了视觉体验，而不是体验驱动了振荡。并且它们表明同步振荡活动将脑区组合成功能网络。这为研究和调节脑振荡及相关功能的可控实验干预乃至临床干预指出了新途径。
