Stimulus-Induced and State-Dependent Sustained Gamma Activity Is Tightly Coupled to the Hemodynamic Response in Humans

A prompt behavioral response to a stimulus depends both on the salience of the stimulus as well as the subject's preparedness. Thus, both stimulus properties and cognitive factors, such as attention, may determine the strength of neuronal synchronization in the gamma range. For a comprehensive investigation of stimulus–response processing through noninvasive imaging, it is, however, a crucial issue whether both kinds of gamma modulation elicit a hemodynamic response. Here, we show that, in the human visual cortex, stimulus strength and internal state modulate sustained gamma activity and hemodynamic response in close correspondence. When participants reported velocity changes of gratings varying in contrast, gamma activity (35–70 Hz) increased systematically with contrast. For stimuli of constant contrast, the amplitude of gamma activity before the behaviorally relevant velocity change was inversely correlated to the behavioral response latency. This indicates that gamma activity also reflects an overall attentive state. For both sources of variance, gamma activity was tightly coupled to the hemodynamic response measured through optical topography. Because of the close relationship between high-frequency neuronal activity and the hemodynamic signal, we conclude that both stimulus-induced and state-dependent gamma activity trigger a metabolic demand and are amenable to vascular-based imaging.