Paper published in eLife

Brickwedde, M., Limachya, R., Markiewicz, R., Sutton, E., Postzich, C., Shapiro, K., Jensen, O., and Mazaheri, A. (2025) Cross-modal interaction of Alpha Activity does not reflect inhibition of early sensory processing: A frequency tagging study using EEG and MEG. eLife 14:RP106050

Https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.106050.3 

This study provides evidence regarding the role of alpha oscillations in sensory gain control. We use an attention-cueing task in an initial EEG study, followed by a separate MEG replication study, to demonstrate that whilst (occipital) alpha oscillations are increased when anticipating an auditory target, so is visual responsiveness as assessed with frequency tagging. Therefore, the results demonstrate a general vigilance effect on sensory processing and offer a re-interpretation of the inhibitory role of the alpha rhythm.