High-frequency visual stimulation can increase medial temporal lobe ripple oscillation density.

Overview

1. University of Potsdam, Department of Psychology,Potsdam, Germany
2. Nuuron GmbH, Berlin, Germany
3. Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Clinical Neurotechnology Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy,Berlin, Germany
4. International Center for Primate Brain Research (ICPBR), Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences,Shanghai, China
5. Epilepsy-Center Berlin-Brandenburg, Institute for Diagnostics of Epilepsy, Berlin, Germany
6. Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Department of Neurology,Berlin, Germany
7. Department of Epileptology, Krankenhaus Mara, Epilepsy-Center Bethel, Bielefeld University, Medical School OWL,Bielefeld, Germany

Abstract

Background: Flickering visual stimulation can evoke neural oscillations, which can influence ongoing brain activity. Electrophysiological recordings of neural oscillations in the ripple band (80–180 Hz) show that these high-frequency oscillations occur in the neocortex and the hippocampus, that they phase-synchronize across long distances, and that ripple oscillations in the neocortex often precede those in the hippocampus during wakefulness. It is therefore possible that the neocortical ripple oscillations propagate beyond sensory areas to the hippocampus, inducing ripple oscillations.

Methods: To test the hypothesis that neocortical ripple oscillations induced by visual stimulation induce hippocampal ripple oscillations, we conduct an exploratory experiment (N = 8) in humans, using ultra-high frequency visual stimulation to induce ripple oscillations recorded through electrodes implanted in or near the hippocampus. Although hippocampal ripple oscillations, so-called sharp-wave-ripples, mostly occur during quiet rest or slow-wave sleep, we aim to increase their abundance using visual stimulation during wakefulness in this exploratory study. We hypothesize that ultra-high frequency visual stimulation increases the number of sharp-wave-ripples relative to an eyes-open resting-state baseline.

Results: In this exploratory and preliminary study, we observe significantly more sharp-wave-ripples per second during periods of stimulation compared to a resting-state baseline before and after the stimulation.

Conclusions: The increased number of sharp-wave ripples during stimulation suggests that ultra-high-frequency visual stimulation can be used as a safe noninvasive tool to influence sharp-wave ripples, which offers the potential to improve memory.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

The paper links to its data, not to its authors' code: see the Data section.

Code availability

Analysis code for the processing of electrophysiological data and statistical analyses can be found in the Center for Open Science repository 10.17605/OSF.IO/YCK7T. Raw data preprocessing and visualization were performed using the FieldTrip toolbox for MATLAB. SWR detection was performed with custom-written code in Python version 3.10. Statistical analyses were performed with custom-written code in R version 4.5.0.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Tracing map

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Data

Datasets cited

• osf:yck7t, at OSF; found in “Data availability”

Data availability

Processed and anonymized electrophysiological data are available as open data in the Center for Open Science repository https://osf.io/yck7t/. Source data underlying Figs. 1–3 can be accessed from the “Output” folder in https://osf.io/yck7t/files/osfstorage. MRI and CT data can’t be made available due to data protection regulations.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

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Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 12 authors, 2 keywords, 74 references.

Cite

This paper

Keil, J., Hernandez-Urbina, V., Doherty, L., Bahmani, H., Holtkamp, M., Steinbart, D., Diall, A.-D., Hebel, J. M., Brandt, C., Cloppenborg, T., Doll, A., & Müschenich, M. (2026). High-frequency visual stimulation can increase medial temporal lobe ripple oscillation density. Communications medicine, 6(1), 434. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-026-01846-6

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