Perspectives on the Combined Use of Electric Brain Stimulation and Perceptual Learning in Vision

Abstract

A growing body of literature offers exciting perspectives on the use of brain stimulation to boost training-related perceptual improvements in humans. Recent studies suggest that combining visual perceptual learning (VPL) training with concomitant transcranial electric stimulation (tES) leads to learning rate and generalization effects larger than each technique used individually. Both VPL and tES have been used to induce neural plasticity in brain regions involved in visual perception, leading to long-lasting visual function improvements. Despite being more than a century old, only recently have these techniques been combined in the same paradigm to further improve visual performance in humans. Nonetheless, promising evidence in healthy participants and in clinical population suggests that the best could still be yet to come for the combined use of VPL and tES. In the first part of this perspective piece, we briefly discuss the history, the characteristics, the results and the possible mechanisms behind each technique and their combined effect. In the second part, we discuss relevant aspects concerning the use of these techniques and propose a perspective concerning the combined use of electric brain stimulation and perceptual learning in the visual system, closing with some open questions on the topic.