This review highlights work showing that spectrally distributed oscillations and their coupling have functional relevance for sensorimotor processing.
Palva, S., & Palva, J. M. (2018). Roles of brain criticality and multiscale oscillations in temporal predictions for sensorimotor processing. Trends in Neurosciences, 41(10), 729-743.
Low-frequency synchrony between the anterior cingulate and orbitofrontal cortex is diminished when errors are made.
Fatahi, Z., Haghparast, A., Khani, A., & Kermani, M. (2017). Functional connectivity between Anterior Cingulate cortex and Orbitofrontal cortex during value-based decision making. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.
There is growing evidence that bottom-up sensory inputs are associated with gamma oscillations (30-120 Hz) while top-down control depends on lower frequencies from delta through beta (1-30 Hz). This review argues that phase-phase synchrony across different frequencies integrates, coordinates, and regulates the neural assemblies in different frequency bands.
Palva, J. M., & Palva, S. (2017). Functional integration across oscillation frequencies by cross‐frequency phase synchronization. European Journal of Neuroscience.
MEG study in humans shows the functional significance of high alpha-band synchrony for visual attention.
Lobier, M., Palva, J. M., & Palva, S. (2017). High-alpha band synchronization across frontal, parietal and visual cortex mediates behavioral and neuronal effects of visuospatial attention. bioRxiv, 165563.
A model showing how neural coherence can flexibly route information. If you have a better idea of what underlies cognitive flexibility, I’d like to hear it.
Flexible information routing by transient synchrony
Agostina Palmigiano, Theo Geisel, Fred Wolf & Demian Battaglia
This study shows the role of alpha and beta oscillations in the prefrontal cortex and frontal eye fields in a classic test of cognitive control: anti-saccades. It also shows how these oscillatory patterns develop with adulthood.
Hwang, Kai, et al. “Frontal preparatory neural oscillations associated with cognitive control: A developmental study comparing young adults and adolescents.” NeuroImage (2016).
I like to say that anatomy is the road-and-highway system, activity is the traffic, and oscillations are the traffic lights. So, here you go:
Human brain networks function in connectome-specific harmonic waves.
Selen Atasoy, Isaac Donnelly & Joel Pearson
Nature Communications 7, Article number: 10340 doi:10.1038/ncomms10340
Pascal Fries and crew add to the mounting evidence that slow vs fast oscillations subserve feedback vs feedforward information flow in the cortex.
Michalareas, G., Vezoli, J., van Pelt, S., Schoffelen, J. M., Kennedy, H., & Fries, P. (2016). Alpha-Beta and Gamma Rhythms Subserve Feedback and Feedforward Influences among Human Visual Cortical Areas. Neuron.
Excellent review of how wide-spread brain areas use synchronized rhythms form networks for focusing attention. Very comprehensive and thorough on both a maco and micro-circuit level.
Pascal Fries walks us through the latest in the communication through coherence theory.
Fries, Pascal. “Rhythms for Cognition: Communication through Coherence.”Neuron 88.1 (2015): 220-235.