Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ORCA (Oscillatory long-Range Coherence in Attention)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2016-08-01 al 2018-07-31
Our research project set out to answer these questions by applying a novel brain stimulation technique, transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS). In the first study, we assessed the effects of stimulation on spatial attention performance, while simultaneously measuring neural activity using electroencephalogram (EEG). Unfortunately, we did not find the expected effects of stimulation on attention or neural activity. Because this finding contradicts previous findings, we currently are unsure whether it is possible to modulate spatial attention with tACS.
In a second study we focused on manipulating vigilant attention instead of spatial attention. This kind of attention is particularly important in settings that require you to focus attention for a long time on an generally uneventful task, such as driving a car or air traffic control. In this study we found a frequency-specific effect on performance. Although further research is needed, this finding offers promising tools to improve vigilant attention.
Taken together, in our research project we were able to modulate vigilant attention, but not spatial attention. In the future, these initial results could lead to methods to improve (vigilant) attention and thereby prevent the harmful effects of deteriorating attention.
For the second project, we tested 101 participants in a between-subject design. Participants were tested with two different stimulation frequencies. After analysis of the behavioral data, we found that although performance on the task declined over time (which is expected in this task), the degree of performance decline was different for the two stimulation conditions. This means that we potentially found a tool to reduce the performance decrement that is often found on tasks requiring vigilant attention. We are currently writing a paper on these findings.
I also contributed to a review paper on the use of brain stimulation to improve attention. This paper was published in 2017.