The Role of Alpha-Band Brain Oscillations as a Sensory Suppression Mechanism during Selective Attention

By John J. Foxe, Adam C. Snyder. Front. Psychology, 2011

1,418 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Evidence has amassed from both animal intracranial recordings and human electrophysiology that neural oscillatory mechanisms play a critical role in a number of cognitive functions such as learning, memory, feature binding and sensory gating. The wide availability of high-density electrical and magnetic recordings (64–256 channels) over the past two decades has allowed for renewed efforts in the characterization and localization of these rhythms. A variety of cognitive effects that are associated with specific brain oscillations have been reported, which range in spectral, temporal, and spatial characteristics depending on the context. Our laboratory has focused on investigating the role of alpha-band oscillatory activity (8–14 Hz) as a potential attentional suppression mechanism, and this particular oscillatory attention mechanism will be the focus of the current review. We discuss findings in the context of intersensory selective attention as well as intrasensory spatial and feature-based attention in the visual, auditory, and tactile domains. The weight of evidence suggests that alpha-band oscillations can be actively invoked within cortical regions across multiple sensory systems, particularly when these regions are involved in processing irrelevant or distracting information. That is, a central role for alpha seems to be as an attentional suppression mechanism when objects or features need to be specifically ignored or selected against.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6e65dbadd8d6bf4592c7cb6e85dfe937bc12922b

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In Cognitive Neuroscience

Citations in the corpus

Inter- and intra-individual variability in alpha peak frequency (2014, background): “In particular, alpha oscillations are proposed to reflect amechanismof functional inhibition (Foxe and Snyder, 2011; Jensen et al., 2012;Mathewson et al., 2011), regulating the engagement and disengagement of sensory areas depending on task demands.”
The development of theta and alpha neural oscillations from ages 3 to 24 years (2021, background): “Whereas alpha-band power in adults is thought to index the inhibition of task-irrelevant processes that distract attention and working memory functions (Foxe and Snyder, 2011; Klimesch et al., 2007; Riddle et al., 2020b).”
Resting-state periodic and aperiodic brain oscillations from birth to preschool years: Aperiodic maturity predicts developmental course (2026, unknown): “…and Zhai, 2009; He et al., 2019; Tran, 2020), with dominant oscillation activity reflecting the excitability of a cortical region (Haegens, 2011; Foxe and Snyder, 2011; Klimesch et al., 2007; Riddle, 2020), associated with top-down cognitive control processes (Buschman and Miller, 2007; Hwang,…”
Altered oscillatory activity pattern during reconfiguration processes of perception–action representations in adolescents with AD(H)D (2025, unknown): “…was shown to facilitate the processing of relevant information by implementing control in a top-down manner to actively suppress distracting or task-irrelevant cognitive representations in working memory (Bonnefond & Jensen, 2012; Foxe & Snyder, 2011; Janssens et al., 2018; Klimesch et al., 2007).”
Resting-state EEG correlates of sustained attention in healthy ageing: Cross-sectional findings from the LEISURE study. (2024, background): “Specifically, alterations in the alpha frequency band (~8 – 12 Hz), most prominent over occipital and parietal brain regions during eyes closed waking rest (Mierau et al., 2017), have been associated with cognitive processes (Foxe and Snyder, 2011; Klimesch, 1999; Palva and Palva, 2007).”
Alterations in aperiodic and periodic EEG activity in young children with Down syndrome (2024, unknown): “Both theta and alpha oscillations are thought to be regulated by thalamocortical circuitry (Klimesch, 2012; Foxe and Snyder, 2011), and across early development multiple studies have observed a shift in the dominant oscillatory frequency from a ~ 5 Hz theta range at five months of age, to a ~ 8 Hz…”
Developmental trajectories of EEG aperiodic and periodic components in children 2–44 months of age (2024, unknown): “Thus far, developmental EEG studies have largely focused on theta/alpha oscillations which are modulated by thalamocortical interactions and are associated with cognitive functions of attention and memory 24 – 26 .”
Alterations in aperiodic and periodic EEG activity in young children with Down syndrome (2024, unknown): “Both theta and alpha oscillations are thought to be regulated by thalamocortical circuitry (Klimesch, 2012; Foxe and Snyder, 2011), and across early development multiple studies have observed a shift in the dominant oscillatory frequency from a ~ 5 Hz theta range at five months of age, to a ~ 8 Hz…”
The strength of anticipated distractors shapes EEG alpha and theta oscillations in a Working Memory task (2024, unknown): “According to a prevailing model, alpha power modulation in posterior sensory cortices, as observed in the previous studies, is affected by top-down influences from frontal and parietal areas via long-range connections (Foxe and Snyder, 2011; Noonan et al., 2018).”