Experimental Psychology Lab, Department of Psychology, European Medical School, Cluster for Excellence "Hearing for All", Carl von Ossietzky University, Oldenburg, Germany.
Experimental Psychology Lab, Department of Psychology, European Medical School, Cluster for Excellence "Hearing for All", Carl von Ossietzky University, Oldenburg, Germany; Neuroimaging Unit, European Medical School, Carl von Ossietzky University, Oldenburg, Germany; Research Center Neurosensory Science, Carl von Ossietzky University, Oldenburg, Germany.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2023 Nov;193:112247. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2023.112247. Epub 2023 Sep 27.
The underlying mechanisms of the event-related potential (ERP) generation are still under debate. One popular model considers the ERP as a superposition of phase-resets of ongoing endogenous oscillations of different frequencies. Brain oscillations have been shown to be modulated by transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS). Thus, it seems feasible, that an ERP could be altered by modulating the contributing oscillations using tACS. One possible approach would be to target a frequency-matched stimulation signal to a specific ERP-component. One possible target for such an approach is the P3, which appears as delta/theta oscillations in the frequency-domain. Thus, an ERP-aligned stimulation in the delta/theta-range might be suitable to force synchronization in the stimulated frequency band and thus increase the amplitude of the P3 component. Building on an existing paradigm, in the present study 21 healthy participants received individualized ERP-aligned delta tACS and control stimulation while performing a visual task. The visual stimulation was matched to the continuous tACS in order to align the tACS peak with the P3 peak. Both the P3 amplitude and the evoked delta power were significantly increased after ERP-aligned tACS but not after control stimulation. The investigated behavioral parameter showed no stimulation dependent effect. Our results may provide new insights into the debate on the contribution of phase-reset mechanisms to the generation of ERPs and offer new opportunities for clinical trials.
事件相关电位（ERP）产生的潜在机制仍存在争议。一种流行的模型认为，ERP 是不同频率的内源性振荡的相位复位的叠加。已经表明，脑振荡受经颅交流电刺激（tACS）的调制。因此，似乎有可能通过使用 tACS 调制参与的振荡来改变 ERP。一种可能的方法是将频率匹配的刺激信号靶向特定的 ERP 成分。这种方法的一个可能目标是 P3，它在频域中表现为 delta/theta 振荡。因此，ERP 对齐的 delta/theta 范围内的刺激可能适合在刺激频带中强制同步，从而增加 P3 分量的幅度。在现有范式的基础上，本研究中 21 名健康参与者在执行视觉任务时接受了个性化的 ERP 对齐 delta tACS 和对照刺激。为了使 tACS 峰值与 P3 峰值对齐，视觉刺激与连续 tACS 相匹配。ERP 对齐 tACS 后 P3 幅度和诱发的 delta 功率均显著增加，但对照刺激后无变化。所研究的行为参数没有显示出刺激依赖性的影响。我们的结果可能为有关相位复位机制对 ERP 产生的贡献的争论提供新的见解，并为临床试验提供新的机会。
