Phosphene Perception Relates to Visual Cortex Glutamate Levels and Covaries with Atypical Visuospatial Awareness

Cerebral Cortex
Devin B TerhuneRoi Cohen Kadosh

Abstract

Phosphenes are illusory visual percepts produced by the application of transcranial magnetic stimulation to occipital cortex. Phosphene thresholds, the minimum stimulation intensity required to reliably produce phosphenes, are widely used as an index of cortical excitability. However, the neural basis of phosphene thresholds and their relationship to individual differences in visual cognition are poorly understood. Here, we investigated the neurochemical basis of phosphene perception by measuring basal GABA and glutamate levels in primary visual cortex using magnetic resonance spectroscopy. We further examined whether phosphene thresholds would relate to the visuospatial phenomenology of grapheme-color synesthesia, a condition characterized by atypical binding and involuntary color photisms. Phosphene thresholds negatively correlated with glutamate concentrations in visual cortex, with lower thresholds associated with elevated glutamate. This relationship was robust, present in both controls and synesthetes, and exhibited neurochemical, topographic, and threshold specificity. Projector synesthetes, who experience color photisms as spatially colocalized with inducing graphemes, displayed lower phosphene thresholds than associato...Continue Reading

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Citations

Oct 30, 2016·Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience·Gaby PfeiferNatasha Sigala
Apr 27, 2019·Psychopharmacology·Steliana YanakievaDevin B Terhune
Oct 22, 2019·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·David J SchwartzmanAnil K Seth
May 6, 2020·ELife·Rebecca KeoghJoel Pearson
Nov 19, 2019·Vision·Diana Jimena AriasDave Saint-Amour
Aug 28, 2020·Cognitive Neuropsychology·Tessa M van LeeuwenJamie Ward
Nov 17, 2019·Brain Stimulation·Laura LunguDevin B Terhune
Aug 18, 2020·Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior·Elliot D Freeman
May 18, 2021·The American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis·David J AcunzoDevin B Terhune
Jun 9, 2021·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·George ZacharopoulosRoi Cohen Kadosh
Jun 15, 2021·Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior·Laura LunguDevin B Terhune
Sep 5, 2021·Scientific Reports·George ZacharopoulosRoi Cohen Kadosh

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