Abstract
Gamma-band activity was thought to be related to several high-level cognitive functions, and Gamma ENtrainment Using Sensory stimulation (GENUS, 40 Hz sensory combined visual and auditory stimulation) was found to have positive effects on patients with Alzheimer’s dementia. Other studies found, however, that neural responses induced by single 40 Hz auditory stimulation were relatively weak. To address this, we included several new experimental conditions (sounds with sinusoidal or square wave; open-eye and closed-eye state) combined with auditory stimulation with the aim of investigating which of these induces a stronger 40 Hz neural response. We found that when participant´s eyes were closed, sounds with 40 Hz sinusoidal wave induced the strongest 40 Hz neural response in the prefrontal region compared to responses in other conditions. More interestingly, we also found there is a suppression of alpha rhythms with 40 Hz square wave sounds. Our results provide potential new methods when using auditory entrainment, which may result in a better effect in preventing cerebral atrophy and improving cognitive performance.
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Acknowledgements
This study was sponsored by the Bei**g Municipal Hospital Clinical Technology Innovation and Research Plan (XMLX201805), Bei**g Municipal Hospital Research and Development Project (PX2021068), Advanced Innovation Center for Human Brain Protection Project (3500-12020137). We also acknowledge the great support from the WM Therapeutics Ltd.
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MG, CH, ML, XZ conceived and designed the study. MG, CH, ML, NH, JT, SL contributed to the literature search, MG, CH, JT, SL contributed to data collection. CH, MG, XF, JQ contributed to the data analysis, and the interpretation of results. All authors contributed to writing the paper.
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Han, C., Zhao, X., Li, M. et al. Enhancement of the neural response during 40 Hz auditory entrainment in closed-eye state in human prefrontal region. Cogn Neurodyn 17, 399–410 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11571-022-09834-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11571-022-09834-x