Yan‑Yan Li1,2  · Bo Zhang3  · Jing Wang4  · Yuri B. Saalmann5,6 · Mohsen Afrasiabi5  · Peng‑Cheng Lv1,2 · Hai‑Xiang Wang7  · Huan‑Huan Xiang4  · Meng‑Yang Wang4  · Guo‑Ming Luan8  · Robert T. Knight9,10 · Liang Wang1,2

1 State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Science and Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China 

2 Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China 

3 Key Laboratory of Brain Science, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563000, China 

4 Department of Neurology, SanBo Brain Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100093, China 

5 Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison 53705, USA 

6 Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, Madison 53705, USA 

7 Epilepsy Center, Tsinghua University Yuquan Hospital, Beijing 100040, China 

8 Department of Neurosurgery, SanBo Brain Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100093, China 

9 Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley 94720, USA 

10 Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley 94720, USA

Abstract

Direct electrical stimulation of the human cortex can produce subjective visual sensations, yet these sensations are unstable. The underlying mechanisms may stem from differences in electrophysiological activity within the distributed network outside the stimulated site. To address this problem, we recruited 69 patients who experienced visual sensations during invasive electrical stimulation while intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) data were recorded. We found significantly flattened power spectral slopes in distributed regions involving different brain networks and decreased integrated information during elicited visual sensations compared with the non-sensation condition. Further analysis based on minimum information partitions revealed that the reconfigured network interactions primarily involved the inferior frontal cortex, posterior superior temporal sulcus, and temporoparietal junction. The flattened power spectral slope in the inferior frontal gyrus was also correlated with integrated information. Taken together, this study indicates that the altered electrophysiological signatures provide insights into the neural mechanisms underlying subjective visual sensations.

Keywords

Perception; Power spectral slope; Information integration; Electrical stimulation; Intracranial EEG

[SpringerLink]