Cross-frequency coupling of alpha oscillatory power to the entrainment rhythm of a spatially attended input stream

ABSTRACT

Neural entrainment and alpha oscillatory power (8–14 Hz) are mechanisms of selective attention. The extent to which these two mechanisms interact, especially in the context of visuospatial attention, is unclear. Here, we show that spatial attention to a delta-frequency, rhythmic visual stimulus in one hemifield results in phase-amplitude coupling between the delta-phase of an entrained frontal source and alpha power generated by ipsilateral visuocortical regions. The driving of ipsilateral alpha power by frontal delta also correlates with task performance. Our analyses suggest that neural entrainment may serve a previously underappreciated role in coordinating macroscale brain networks and that inhibition of processing by alpha power can be coupled to an attended temporal structure. Finally, we note that the observed coupling bolsters one dominant hypothesis of modern cognitive neuroscience, that macroscale brain networks and distributed neural computation are coordinated by oscillatory synchrony and cross-frequency interactions.

KEYWORDS:

• Neural oscillations
• entrainment
• attention
• alpha oscillations
• delta oscillations
• cross-frequency coupling
• phase-amplitude coupling

Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by a grant from the Pepsi Corporation (Pepsi-Co) to Dr. Foxe (PEP 1323). The authors’ investigation of neural oscillations and attention was also supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF BCS1228595). Drs. Wilson and Foxe thank Sydney Jacobs and Haleigh Smith for help with data collection. Dr. Wilson received partial support from a National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Medical Scientist Training Program Grant (T32 GM007288). The authors declare no competing financial interests that would in any way bias the results reported herein.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences [BCS1228595]; National Institute of General Medical Sciences [T32 GM007288]; PepsiCo [PEP 1323].