Intensity dependence of sub-harmonics in cortical response to photic stimulation

Objective. Periodic photic stimulation of human volunteers at 10 Hz is known to entrain their electroencephalography (EEG) signals. This entrainment manifests as an increment in power at 10, 20, 30 Hz. We observed that this entrainment is accompanied by the emergence of sub-harmonics, but only at specific frequencies and higher intensities of the stimulating signal. Thereafter, we describe our results and explain them using the physiologically inspired Jansen and Rit neural mass model (NMM). Approach. Four human volunteers were separately exposed to both high and low intensity 10 Hz and 6 Hz stimulation. A total of four experiments per subject were therefore performed. Simulations and bifurcation analysis of the NMM were carried out and compared with the experimental findings. Main results. High intensity 10 Hz stimulation led to an increment in power at 5 Hz across all the four subjects. No increment of power was observed with low intensity stimulation. However, when the same protocol was repeated with a 6 Hz photic stimulation, neither high nor low intensity stimulation were found to cause a discernible change in power at 3 Hz. We found that the NMM was able to recapitulate these results. A further numerical analysis indicated that this arises from the underlying bifurcation structure of the NMM. Significance. The excellent match between theory and experiment suggest that the bifurcation properties of the NMM are mirroring similar features possessed by the actual neural masses producing the EEG dynamics. NMMs could thus be valuable for understanding properties and pathologies of EEG dynamics, and may contribute to the engineering of brain-computer interface technologies.