Adam Gazzaley continues to ride his media wave by making music with the brain oscillations of Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart.
NPR.org
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Ranulfo Romo and crew show delta band (1-4 Hz) synchrony between frontal and parietal cortex that varies with decisions. When there were no decisions to be made, frontal-parietal delta was reduced.
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An article in MIT’s Technology Review magazine about our work on how multitasking “mixed selectivity” neurons may be key for cognition.
Do-It-All Neurons – A key to cognitive flexibility by Anne Trafton -
Markov et al provide an excellent review and analysis of the anatomy of visual cortex and beyond. The show that supragranular layers contain highly segregated feedforward and feedback pathways. Their analysis of the detailed anatomy revealed that feedback connections are more numerous and have more levels than feedforward connections. By contrast, infragranular layers are less hierarchical and may be more involved in point-to-point cross-talk than feedforward or feedback processing. Markov et al map the feedforward and feedback pathways to recent observations that feedforward vs feedback communication is supported by gamma vs beta cortical oscillations.
For more on the role of oscillations in feedforward and feedback cortical communication, see our review:
Miller, E.K. and Buschman, T.J. (2013) Cortical circuits for the control of attention. Current Opinion in Neurobiology. 23:216–222 View PDF » -
Koralek et al show learning-related increases in oscillatory coherence between the motor cortex and striatum during learning. The increase in coherence was seen for neurons related to behavior. This supports the notion that oscillatory coherence plays a role in forming functional networks.
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Pesenson, Cohen, and Voytek review methods for linking nonlinear oscillatory neural dynamics, in particular oscillatory phase, to behavior.
Linking Nonlinear Neural Dynamics to Single-Trial Human Behavior -
Lee, Whittington, and Kopell review recent studies of the role of beta-band oscillations in top-down control of attention and model it. In their model, top-down beta rhythms activate layer-specific ascending projections that mediate biased competition. Interneurons resonate with the beta oscillations and help modulate superficial layer activity according to attentional demands.
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Lopour et al report evidence for phase coding in the human temporal lobe. They recorded local field potentials (LFPs) in patients during performance of a card matching task. Classification of correct/incorrect responses was better when LFP phase was taken into account. The phases aligned just before the the two cards were compared and then diverged to code the response.
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Vinck, Womelsdorf, Fries review the role of gamma band synchronization in information transfer in the cortex. They argue that due to feedforward coincidence detection and phase-coupling, gamma synchronization is important for flexible routing of information and may be an important determinant of spike rate coding.
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Jutras et al find a relationship between hippocampal theta and visual exploration via saccadic eye movements. Saccades caused a theta reset that was predictive of subsequent recognition of visual images. Enhanced theta power before stimulus onset was also predictive of recognition.