Dynamics of Visual Perceptual Echoes Following Short-Term Visual Deprivation

The visual impulse-response function to random input as measured by EEG is dominated by the perceptual echo, a reverberation of stimulus information in the alpha range believed to represent active rhythmic sampling. How this response is generated on a cortical level is unknown. To characterize the underlying mechanisms, we investigated the echoes’ dynamics following short-term visual deprivation, which is known to modify the excitation/inhibition balance in visual cortex. We subjected observers to 150 min of light deprivation (LD) and monocular contrast deprivation (MD). Perceptual echoes were measured by binocular and dichoptic stimulation, respectively, and compared with a baseline condition. Our results show that the echo response is enhanced after LD, but not affected in temporal frequency or spatial propagation. Consistent with previous studies, MD shifted early response (0–150 ms) amplitudes in favor of the deprived eye, but had no systematic effect on the echoes. Our findings demonstrate that the echoes’ synchrony scales with cortical excitability, adding to previous evidence that they represent active visual processing. Their insensitivity to modulation at the monocular level suggests they are generated by a larger region of visual cortex. Our study provides further insight into how mechanisms of rhythmic sampling are implemented in the visual system.