Rhythmic stimulation elicits multiple, concurrent neural responses

Abstract

Abstract Rhythmic light stimulation offers solutions to innumerable cognitive and neurological disorders. However, like any neuromodulatory technique, responses to rhythmic light stimulation are highly variable, producing challenges in replicating lab-based studies and translating findings to the clinic. Across 3 magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) experiments, we show that this variability can, in part, be attributed to rhythmic light stimulation eliciting multiple, coexisting neural responses which have separable influences on behavior. Specifically, we find that rhythmic light stimulation produces neural responses at both the fundamental (f) and second harmonic (2f) frequencies, and that these responses are differentially shaped by endogenous oscillatory dynamics that vary across participants. Importantly, these harmonic responses separably contribute to perception, with gamma-band responses supporting the representation of stimulus-specific information, and alpha-band responses causally contributing to near-threshold visual perception. We reproduce these effects across datasets, paradigms, and oscillatory bands, suggesting that the multiple, concurrent oscillatory responses elicited by rhythmic light stimulation are a robust and pervasive phenomenon. We propose that the complexity of neural responses to rhythmic stimulation can explain why there is substantial variability between studies using these techniques, and that understanding these complex responses may help advance neuromodulatory technologies for both fundamental and clinical neuroscience.