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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 22, 2025

Detecting Pre-Stimulus Source-Level Effects on Object Perception with Magnetoencephalography

Detecting Pre-Stimulus Source-Level Effects on Object Perception with Magnetoencephalography

Published on: July 26, 2019

Pre-stimulus Alpha Activity Modulates Face and Object Processing in the Intra-Parietal Sulcus, a MEG Study.

Narjes Soltani Dehaghani^1,2, Burkhard Maess³, Reza Khosrowabadi²

¹Institute of Medical Science and Technology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

|May 19, 2022

Summary

Brain activity before seeing a stimulus influences perception, even in simple tasks. This study found pre-stimulus alpha oscillations in specific brain areas modulate responses to faces and objects.

Keywords:

brain oscillations face perception intra-parietal sulcus magnetoencephalography pre-stimulus alpha activity

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Last Updated: Sep 22, 2025

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Neuroscience
Visual Perception

Background:

Face perception is vital for social interaction.
Pre-stimulus brain oscillations are known to affect perception under demanding conditions.
The role of these oscillations in simple tasks and specific brain regions remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the influence of pre-stimulus alpha oscillations on face and non-face perception during a simple task.
To identify the brain regions involved in this modulation.

Main Methods:

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) was employed.
A 1-back task was used, requiring participants to compare sequential stimuli.
The study examined the effect of pre-stimulus alpha oscillations on responses to human faces, monkey faces, and non-face objects (motorcycles).

Main Results:

Pre-stimulus activity in the left occipital face area (OFA) modulated intra-parietal sulcus (IPS) responses ~170 ms after human face presentation.
Similar modulation was observed for motorcycle stimuli, involving the right OFA and right fusiform face area (FFA) influencing the IPS.
These effects occurred independently of the behavioral responses.

Conclusions:

Pre-stimulus neural oscillations modulate perception even during simple tasks.
This modulation is not solely dependent on task difficulty or behavioral output.
Specific occipital and parietal brain regions play a role in processing visual stimuli based on prior brain activity.