TY - JOUR T1 - Two Sides of the Same Coin: Distinct Sub-Bands in the Alpha Rhythm Reflect Facilitation and Suppression Mechanisms during Auditory Anticipatory Attention JF - eneuro JO - eNeuro DO - 10.1523/ENEURO.0141-18.2018 SP - ENEURO.0141-18.2018 AU - Hesham A. ElShafei AU - Romain Bouet AU - Olivier Bertrand AU - Aurélie Bidet-Caulet Y1 - 2018/07/17 UR - http://www.eneuro.org/content/early/2018/07/17/ENEURO.0141-18.2018.abstract N2 - Anticipatory attention results in enhanced response to task-relevant stimulus, and reduced processing of unattended input, suggesting the deployment of distinct facilitatory and suppressive mechanisms. Alpha oscillations are a suitable candidate for supporting these mechanisms. We aimed to examine the role of alpha oscillations, with a special focus on peak frequencies, in facilitatory and suppressive mechanisms during auditory anticipation, within the auditory and visual regions. MEG data were collected from fourteen healthy young human adults (8 female) performing an auditory task in which spatial attention to sounds was manipulated by visual cues, either informative or not of the target side. By incorporating uninformative cues, we could delineate facilitating and suppressive mechanisms. During anticipation of a visually-cued auditory target, we observed a decrease in alpha power around 9Hz in the auditory cortices; and an increase around 13 Hz in the visual regions. Only this power increase in high alpha significantly correlated with behavior. Importantly, within the right auditory cortex, we showed a larger increase in high alpha power when attending an ipsilateral sound; and a stronger decrease in low alpha power when attending a contralateral sound. In summary, we found facilitatory and suppressive attentional mechanisms with distinct timing in task-relevant and task-irrelevant brain areas, differentially correlated to behavior and supported by distinct alpha sub-bands. We provide new insight into the role of the alpha peak-frequency by showing that anticipatory attention is supported by distinct facilitatory and suppressive mechanisms, mediated in different low and high sub-bands of the alpha rhythm, respectively.Significance Statement We investigated the role of alpha oscillations, with a special focus on peak frequencies, in facilitatory and suppressive mechanisms during anticipation, using MEG data collected during an auditory spatial attention task. We show, during anticipation of a visually-cued auditory target, a decrease in alpha power around 9Hz in the auditory cortices, simultaneous to an increase around 13 Hz in in the visual regions, the latter significantly correlated with behavioral performances. Within the right auditory cortex, we show a larger increase in high alpha when attending an ipsilateral sound; and a stronger decrease in low alpha when attending a contralateral sound. Therefore, anticipatory attention would be supported by distinct facilitatory and suppressive mechanisms, mediated in different low and high alpha sub-bands, respectively. ER -