Abstract
Transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) is a recent neuro-modulation technique whose effects at both behavioural and neural level are still debated. Here we exploited the well-known phenomenon of motion aftereffect (MAE) in order to investigate the effects of high- vs. low-frequency tRNS on motion adaptation and recovery. Participants were asked to evaluate MAE duration following the exposure of a circular rotating and expanding grating for 30 s, while being stimulated with either sham or tRNS across different blocks. Different groups were administered with either high- or low-frequency tRNS. Stimulation sites were either bilateral hMT+, early visual areas or frontal areas. Results showed that, whereas no effects on MAE duration were produced by stimulation of early visual areas or frontal areas, high-frequency tRNS caused a significant decrease in MAE duration whereas low-frequency tRNS caused a significant corresponding increase in MAE duration. These data indicate that high- vs. low-frequency tRNS has opposed effects on the unbalance, created by adaptation, between neurons tuned to opposite motion directions, and thus on neuronal excitability
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2016