TY - JOUR
T1 - Light modulates task-dependent thalamo-cortical connectivity during an auditory attentional task
AU - Paparella, Ilenia
AU - Campbell, Islay
AU - Sharifpour, Roya
AU - Beckers, Elise
AU - Berger, Alexandre
AU - Aizpurua, Jose Fermin Balda
AU - Koshmanova, Ekaterina
AU - Mortazavi, Nasrin
AU - Talwar, Puneet
AU - Degueldre, Christian
AU - Lamalle, Laurent
AU - Sherif, Siya
AU - Phillips, Christophe
AU - Maquet, Pierre
AU - Vandewalle, Gilles
PY - 2023/9/16
Y1 - 2023/9/16
N2 - Exposure to blue wavelength light stimulates alertness and performance by modulating a widespread set of task-dependent cortical and subcortical areas. How light affects the crosstalk between brain areas to trigger this stimulating effect is not established. Here we record the brain activity of 19 healthy young participants (24.05±2.63; 12 women) while they complete an auditory attentional task in darkness or under an active (blue-enriched) or a control (orange) light, in an ultra-high-field 7 Tesla MRI scanner. We test if light modulates the effective connectivity between an area of the posterior associative thalamus, encompassing the pulvinar, and the intraparietal sulcus (IPS), key areas in the regulation of attention. We find that only the blue-enriched light strengthens the connection from the posterior thalamus to the IPS. To the best of our knowledge, our results provide the first empirical data supporting that blue wavelength light affects ongoing non-visual cognitive activity by modulating task-dependent information flow from subcortical to cortical areas.
AB - Exposure to blue wavelength light stimulates alertness and performance by modulating a widespread set of task-dependent cortical and subcortical areas. How light affects the crosstalk between brain areas to trigger this stimulating effect is not established. Here we record the brain activity of 19 healthy young participants (24.05±2.63; 12 women) while they complete an auditory attentional task in darkness or under an active (blue-enriched) or a control (orange) light, in an ultra-high-field 7 Tesla MRI scanner. We test if light modulates the effective connectivity between an area of the posterior associative thalamus, encompassing the pulvinar, and the intraparietal sulcus (IPS), key areas in the regulation of attention. We find that only the blue-enriched light strengthens the connection from the posterior thalamus to the IPS. To the best of our knowledge, our results provide the first empirical data supporting that blue wavelength light affects ongoing non-visual cognitive activity by modulating task-dependent information flow from subcortical to cortical areas.
KW - Humans
KW - Female
KW - Thalamus/diagnostic imaging
KW - Cross Reactions
KW - Healthy Volunteers
KW - Light
U2 - 10.1038/s42003-023-05337-5
DO - 10.1038/s42003-023-05337-5
M3 - Article
SN - 2399-3642
VL - 6
JO - Communications Biology
JF - Communications Biology
IS - 1
M1 - 945
ER -