Cross-modal interaction of human alpha activity does not reflect inhibition of early sensory processing in a frequency-tagging study using EEG and MEG.

Overview

1. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2. Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstalt, Berlin, Germany
3. Centre for Human Brain Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
4. Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy
5. Bristol Trials Centre, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
6. Max-Planck Research Institute, Leipzig, Germany
7. Department for Translational Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Abstract

Selective attention involves prioritising relevant sensory input while suppressing irrelevant stimuli. It has been proposed that oscillatory alpha-band activity (~10 Hz) aids this process by functionally inhibiting early sensory regions. However, recent studies have challenged this notion. Our EEG and MEG studies aimed to investigate whether human alpha oscillations serve as a 'gatekeeper' for downstream signal transmission. We first observed these effects in an EEG study and then replicated them using MEG, which allowed us to localise the sources. We employed a cross-modal paradigm where visual cues indicated whether upcoming targets required visual or auditory discrimination. To assess inhibition, we utilised frequency-tagging, simultaneously flickering the fixation cross at 36 Hz and playing amplitude-modulated white noise at 40 Hz during the cue-to-target interval. Consistent with prior research, we observed an increase in posterior alpha activity following cues signalling auditory targets. However, remarkably, both visual and auditory frequency-tagged responses amplified in anticipation of auditory targets, correlating with alpha activity amplitude. Our findings suggest that when attention shifts to auditory processing, the visual stream remains responsive and is not hindered by occipital alpha activity. This implies that alpha modulation does not solely regulate 'gain control' in early visual areas but rather orchestrates signal transmission to later stages of the processing stream.

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

Code

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Data

Datasets cited

• doi:10.18112/openneuro.ds007648.v1.1.0, at OpenNeuro; found in “Data availability”
• doi:10.18112/openneuro.ds007663.v1.0.0, at OpenNeuro; found in “Data availability”

Data availability

The EEG-dataset collected for this study has been deposited at: https://doi.org/10.18112/openneuro.ds007648.v1.1.0 and is publicly available. In the derivatives folder, data and code to replicate the main results (Figure 4) can be accessed.The MEG-dataset collected for this study has been deposited at: https://doi.org/10.18112/openneuro.ds007663.v1.0.0 and is publicly available. In the derivatives folder, data and code to replicate the main results (Figure 9) can be accessed.

The following datasets were generated:

Brickwedde M, Limachya R, Markiewicz R, Sutton E, Postzich C, Shapiro K, Jensen O, Mazaheri A. 2026. CrossModal Study. OpenNeuro.

Brickwedde M, Limachya R, Markiewicz R, Sutton E, Postzich C, Shapiro K, Jensen O, Mazaheri A. 2026. CrossModal Study. OpenNeuro.

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

Versions

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Version 1, 28 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, pages, dates, 8 authors, 1 keyword, 14 MeSH terms, 1 funder, 73 references.

Cite

This paper

Brickwedde, M., Limachya, R., Markiewicz, R., Sutton, E., Postzich, C., Shapiro, K., Jensen, O., & Mazaheri, A. (2026). Cross-modal interaction of human alpha activity does not reflect inhibition of early sensory processing in a frequency-tagging study using EEG and MEG. eLife, 14, RP106050. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.106050

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