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Spatially organized flicker can evoke high-frequency responses above 100Hz in visual cortex
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  • Julian Keil,
  • Hanni Kiiski,
  • Liam Doherty,
  • Victor Hernandez-Urbina,
  • Hamed Bahmani
Julian Keil
Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Hanni Kiiski
Ababax Health GmbH
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Liam Doherty
Ababax Health GmbH
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Victor Hernandez-Urbina
Ababax Health GmbH
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Hamed Bahmani
Ababax Health GmbH
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Abstract

Flickering visual stimulation targeting the entire visual field can evoke steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs), and these SSVEPs can potentially influence ongoing brain activity. Here, we aimed at extending previous findings to evoke high-frequency SSVEPs. We hypothesized that the sequential targeting of neighboring retinal areas allows evoking a high-frequency series of visual evoked potentials which sum to a high-frequency SSVEP across the visual cortex. By selectively and sequentially targeting neighboring retinal areas with high-frequency flickering light, each area was only stimulated every 10ms, but neighboring areas were stimulated at a lag of 8.33ms, 6.06ms, 5.55ms, and 5.26ms (i.e., 120, 165, 180 and 190Hz), for 60 trials of 2s, while we recorded 64-channel EEG from 10 participants. In line with our hypothesis, we measured SSVEPs for 120Hz and 180Hz stimulation with an occipital topography. For the first time, we show that it is possible to evoke high-frequency SSVEPs as high as 180Hz across the visual cortex by using a spatially organized noninvasive visual brain stimulation. This critically extends previous findings on SSVEPs following full-field visual stimulation. Spatially organized noninvasive visual stimulation could potentially be used as a tool to influence high-frequency oscillations, which opens the possibility of targeted therapeutic interventions.
17 Oct 2023Submitted to European Journal of Neuroscience
18 Oct 2023Submission Checks Completed
18 Oct 2023Assigned to Editor
18 Oct 2023Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
18 Oct 2023Reviewer(s) Assigned