Light modulates task-dependent thalamo-cortical connectivity during an auditory attentional task.

Paparella, Ilenia; Campbell, Islay; Sharifpour, Roya; Beckers, Elise; Berger, Alexandre; Aizpurua, Jose Fermin Balda; Koshmanova, Ekaterina; Mortazavi, Nasrin; Talwar, Puneet; Degueldre, Christian; Lamalle, Laurent; Sherif, Siya; Phillips, Christophe; Maquet, Pierre; Vandewalle, Gilles

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. The brain activity of 19 healthy young participants was recorded at 7 T MRI while performing an auditory oddball task under different light conditions. Only blue-enriched light strengthens subcortico-cortical connectivity (thalamus-to-IPS connection).

PARIETAL lobe; BLUE light; THALAMUS; TRANSCRANIAL direct current stimulation; WAKEFULNESS; SCANNING systems

Communications Biology, 2023, Vol 6, Issue 1, p1

2399-3642

Academic Journal

10.1038/s42003-023-05337-5