It shows that the most sophisticated neurons in the brain have less myelin than the less evolutionarily advanced cells; it also raises the possibility that myelin is far more dynamic than we thought it was, and might play an active an important role in modulating brain activity.
This chapter presents an overview of emerging research problems at the boundary between control engineering and neuroscience, toward implementation of closed-loop paradigms for modulating brain activity.
Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) provides a unique opportunity to study causal relationships between activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and executive functioning, by modulating brain activity in SHAM controlled designs.
Coming back to meditation, an unavoidable confounding factor when investigating the role of respiration in modulating brain activity is that slow-paced respiration is typically coupled to attention at large or even focused attention, a condition which in turn activates specific cortical networks16.
Collectively, these sustained and transient responses show the efficacy of short wavelength (473nm) light in modulating brain activity, and indirectly suggest the involvement of melanopsin-expressing RGC, which are the photoreceptors most sensitive to this wavelength.
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive technique for modulating brain activity [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16] that has already provided interesting information on decisional processes such as risk taking [17], [18], social interaction [19] and lying [20], [21].
Instead, it modulates brain activity through a different set of receptors.
This hints at another way in which changes in myelin distribution could modulate brain activity.
Nevertheless, our findings provide objective evidence that illumination conditions modulate brain activity.
The present study investigates how pain modulates brain activity during the performance of a semantic cognitive task.
Results from this research will shed light on the neural mechanisms by which color can modulate brain activity and alter brain function.
