Direct current stimulation over MT+/V5 modulates motion aftereffect in humans.
While there is strong evidence for the central role of the human MT+/V5 in motion processing, its involvement in motion adaptation is still the subject of debate. We used transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to test whether MT+/V5 is part of the neural network involved in the long-term adaptation-induced motion after-effect in humans. It was found that both cathodal and anodal stimulation over MT+/V5 resulted in a significant reduction of the perceived motion after-effect duration, but had no effect on performance in a luminance-change-detection task used to determine attentional load during adaptation. Our control experiment excluded the possibility that the observed MT+/V5 stimulation effects were due to a diffused modulation of the early cortical areas, i.e. by the stimulation applied over MT+/V5. These results provide evidence that external modulation of neural excitability in human MT+/V5 affects the strength of perceived motion after-effect and support the involvement of MT+/V5 in motion adaptation processes.
Antal
Andrea
A
Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Georg-August University, 37075 Göttingen, Germany. A.Antal@gwdg.de
Varga
Edina T
ET
Nitsche
Michael A
MA
Chadaide
Zoltan
Z
Paulus
Walter
W
Kovács
Gyula
G
Vidnyánszky
Zoltán
Z
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000502:physiology / Q000528:radiation effects*; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology / Q000528:radiation effects*; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology / Q000528:radiation effects*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology / Q000528:radiation effects*; D013997:Time Factors