About this Research Topic
Perception is an active process that requires the coordinated activity of both, lower-order cortical areas that detect specific sensory signals, and higher-order areas responsible for the integration of these different sensory signals across space, time and sensory modalities.
Over the last decades, electrophysiological (e.g. EEG/MEG) and neuroimaging (e.g. fMRI) findings have provided an enormous body of evidence about the neural networks and the temporal scales underlying the construction of a conscious perceptual experience from the continuous flow of sensory information coming from the environment.
At present, scientists are putting many efforts in complementing this correlational evidence with findings obtained with non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques, which can be used to probe a direct relationship between neural mechanisms and perceptual experience, and also for testing neural plasticity in sensory and associative areas that are involved in learning processes. NIBS approaches are of primary importance also to develop better remediation strategies for neurological and psychiatric conditions, especially in combination with perceptual and cognitive training.
The aim of this Research Topic is to bring together scientists working on the many different aspects of conscious perception in the visual, auditory and somatosensory domains, both with a uni- or multi- sensory perspective, to present their most recent advances obtained with neurostimulation techniques such as sensory entrainment, transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS), transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).
Among the various experimental questions that can be addressed with NIBS, this Research Topic encourages contributions investigating especially the following aspects:
- Oscillatory determinants of our perceptual experience
- Perceptual analysis and interpretation in the spatial and temporal domains
- Integration of sensory information across time or between sensory modalities
- The role of selective attention in determining conscious perception
- Sensory-motor coupling mechanisms with functional consequences for perception
- Plasticity and learning within perceptual systems
- Closed-loop paradigms and their application in the study of conscious perception
- Neural modulation of perception and sensory processing in clinical conditions
We are open to original reports of new experimental findings (including null results), theoretical contributions and critical reviews of the literature, with the aim of reaching a better comprehension of how the various forms of neurostimulation can be used to map the precise neural mechanisms underlying conscious perception and to unveil its potentiality in clinical settings.
Keywords: Vision, audition, sensory processing, tES, TMS
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
