María Melcón, Enrique Stern, Dominique Kessel, Lydia Arana, Claudia Poch, Pablo Campo, Almudena Capilla:
Perception of near-threshold visual stimuli is influenced by pre-stimulus alpha-band amplitude but not by alpha phase (2023-03-14)
bioRxiv 2023.03.14.532551; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.03.14.532551

"...Our results show a clear effect of pre-stimulus alpha amplitude on conscious perception, but only when alpha fluctuated spontaneously and was not modulated by attention, supporting the notion that alpha-band power indexes neural excitability. In contrast, we did not find any evidence that pre-stimulus alpha phase influences the perceptual outcome, not even when differentiating between low and high amplitude trials. Furthermore, Bayesian analysis provided moderate evidence in favor of the absence of phase effects. Taken together, our results challenge the central theoretical predictions of the pulsed-inhibition framework, at least for the particular experimental conditions used here."