Neural dynamics of stroboscopic stimulation at different stimulation frequencies

Abstract

Stroboscopic stimulation has been previously shown to induce visual hallucinations and altered states of consciousness, state by entraining the brain to the driving frequency, similar to those reported during the psychedelics although little systematic research exists on the effect of specific stimulation frequency on experience. The present study investigated the effects of different stroboscopic stimulation frequencies on neural dynamics, such as signal diversity (Lempel-Ziv complexity) and spectral power and attempted to relate these changes to self-reported changes in experiential content. The results indicated that the stimulation frequencies near the alpha band (8 – 12 Hz) caused the greatest increase across all neural measures, with 8 Hz consistently displaying the most pronounced results, relative to baseline. All tested frequencies led to an increase in all experiential dimensions, relative to baseline.