Spontaneous Alpha-Band Oscillations Bias Subjective Contrast Perception
Elio Balestrieri, Niko A. Busch
Abstract
Perceptual decisions depend both on the features of the incoming stimulus and on the ongoing brain activity at the moment the stimulus is received. Specifically, trial-to-trial fluctuations in cortical excitability have been linked to fluctuations in the amplitude of prestimulus a oscillations (;8-13 Hz), which are in turn are associated with fluctuations in subjects' tendency to report the detection of a stimulus. It is currently unknown whether a oscillations bias postperceptual decision-making, or even bias subjective perception itself. To answer this question, we used a contrast discrimination task in which both male and female human subjects reported which of two gratings (one in each hemifield) was perceived as having a stronger contrast. Our EEG analysis showed that subjective contrast was reduced for the stimulus in the hemifield represented in the hemisphere with relatively stronger prestimulus a amplitude, reflecting reduced cortical excitability. Furthermore, the strength of this spontaneous hemispheric lateralization was strongly correlated with the magnitude of individual subjects' biases, suggesting that the spontaneous patterns of a lateralization play a role in explaining the intersubject variability in contrast perception. These results indicate that spontaneous fluctuations in cortical excitability, indicated by patterns of prestimulus a amplitude, affect perceptual decisions by altering the phenomenological perception of the visual world.