PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - ElShafei, Hesham A.
AU  - Orlemann, Corinne
AU  - Haegens, Saskia
TI  - The Impact of Eye Closure on Anticipatory α Activity in a Tactile Discrimination Task
AID  - 10.1523/ENEURO.0412-21.2021
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - eneuro
PG  - ENEURO.0412-21.2021
VI  - 9
IP  - 1
4099  - http://www.eneuro.org/content/9/1/ENEURO.0412-21.2021.short
4100  - http://www.eneuro.org/content/9/1/ENEURO.0412-21.2021.full
SO  - eNeuro2022 Jan 01; 9
AB  - One of the very first observations made regarding α oscillations (8–14 Hz), is that they increase in power over posterior areas when awake participants close their eyes. Recent work, especially in the context of (spatial) attention, suggests that α activity reflects a mechanism of functional inhibition. However, it remains unclear how eye closure impacts anticipatory α modulation observed in attention paradigms, and how this affects subsequent behavioral performance. Here, we recorded magnetoencephalography (MEG) in 33 human participants performing a tactile discrimination task with their eyes open versus closed. We replicated the hallmarks of previous somatosensory spatial attention studies: α lateralization across the somatosensory cortices as well as α increase over posterior (visual) regions. Furthermore, we found that eye closure leads to (1) reduced task performance; (2) widespread increase in α power; and (3) reduced anticipatory visual α modulation (4) with no effect on somatosensory α lateralization. Regardless of whether participants had their eyes open or closed, increased visual α power and somatosensory α lateralization improved their performance. Thus, we provide evidence that eye closure does not alter the impact of anticipatory α modulations on behavioral performance. We propose there is an optimal visual α level for somatosensory task performance, which can be achieved through a combination of eye closure and top-down anticipatory attention.