Natural-scene-based Steady-state Visual Evoked Potentials Reveal Effects of Short-term Monocular Deprivation. (21st May 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lyu, Lili; He, Sheng; Jiang, Yi; Engel, Stephen A.; Bao, Min
• Is Part Of: Neuroscience. Volume 435(2020)
• Page Start: 10
• Page End: 21
• Publication Date: 2020-05-21
• Subjects: EEG electroencephalography -- EOI electrode of interest -- FDR false discovery rate -- MD monocular deprivation -- RLS recursive least square -- ROI region of interest -- SNR signal-to-noise ratio -- SSVEP steady-state visual evoked potential; ocular dominance -- monocular deprivation -- Fourier phase -- natural scene -- steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP); Neurochemistry -- Periodicals; Neurophysiology -- Periodicals; Neurology -- Periodicals; Neurochimie -- Périodiques; Neurophysiologie -- Périodiques; Neurochemistry; Neurophysiology; Electronic journals; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 612.8
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2020.03.039
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0306-4522

Abstract

Highlights: Using natural-scene-based steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) technique we measured the ocular-specific signals. Two hours of monocular deprivation (MD) boosted the neural gain for the deprived eye. Neural gain for the deprived eye increased progressively during the MD. The effects of short-term MD can manifest when viewing natural scenes. Our method is powerful in tracking neural responses to natural adapting environment. Abstract: Ocular dominance plasticity beyond the critical period has been demonstrated in adult humans in recent investigations of short-term monocular deprivation (MD). To our knowledge, all previous research adopted non-natural synthetic stimuli in testing perceptual ocular dominance before and after the MD. However, it is recognized that complex natural stimuli may engage cortical mechanisms substantially different from simple synthetic stimuli. Therefore, it remains largely unknown whether reshaping of ocular dominance following MD could be observed during perception of natural scene stimuli without conspicuous interocular competition. Here we used the steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) technique to measure the ocular-specific neural effects of MD with natural scene stimuli where the two eyes' images were tagged with different frequencies. Two hours of MD boosted the neural gain for the deprived eye. During the course of MD, the SSVEP amplitude ratio for the deprived eye compared to the non-deprived eye increased significantly over time, indicating a progressive increase of neural gain for the deprived eye. These findings demonstrate that the effects of short-term MD can manifest when viewing natural scenes, providing a natural case in support of the homeostatic compensation theory of MD. Our work also indicates that the technique of natural-scene-based SSVEP could be particularly useful for future work exploring the neural dynamics during adaptation to natural stimuli.