The influence of tDCS on perceived bouncing/streaming

Processing ambiguous situations is a constant challenge in everyday life and sensory input from different modalities needs to be integrated to form a coherent mental representation on the environment. The bouncing/streaming illusion can be studied to provide insights into the ambiguous perception and processing of multi-modal environments. In short, the likelihood of reporting bouncing rather than streaming impressions increases when a sound coincides with the moment of overlap between two moving disks. Neuroimaging studies revealed that the right posterior parietal cortex is crucial in cross-modal integration and is active during the bouncing/streaming illusion. Consequently, in the present study, we used transcranial direct current stimulation to stimulate this brain area. In the active stimulation conditions, a 9 cm(2) electrode was positioned over the P4-EEG position and the 35 cm(2) reference positioned over the left upper arm. The stimulation lasted 15 min. Each participant did the bouncing/streaming task three times: before, during and after anodal or sham stimulation. In a sample of N = 60 healthy, young adults, we found no influence of anodal tDCS. Bayesian analysis showed strong evidence against tDCS effects. There are two possible explanations for the finding that anodal tDCS over perceptual areas did not modulate multimodal integration. First, upregulation of multimodal integration is not possible using tDCS over the PPC as the integration process already functions at maximum capacity. Second, prefrontal decision-making areas may have overruled any modulated input from the PPC as it may not have matched their decision-making criterion and compensated for the modulation.

Automated summary

Processing ambiguous situations in everyday life requires integrating sensory input from different modalities to form a coherent mental representation of the environment. Studying the bouncing/streaming illusion provides insights into the perception and processing of ambiguous multi-modal environments. Neuroimaging studies have shown that the right posterior parietal cortex is crucial in cross-modal integration and is active during the bouncing/streaming illusion. However, transcranial direct current stimulation did not modulate multi-modal integration, possibly because the integration process already functions at maximum capacity or because prefrontal decision-making areas overruled the modulation from the posterior parietal cortex.