Recent evidence suggests that beta-band activity plays a key role in decision-making. Here we review our recent work in humans and non-human primates showing that beta-band frequency shifts in frontal...

Hahyeon Park, Haseong Kim, Eunyoung Yeo and Alan Jung Park. Exp Neurobiol -0001;0:. https://doi.org/10.5607/en25034

Traveling waves are neural oscillations that progressively propagate across the cortex in specific directions and spatial patterns, however, their underlying mechanisms remain elusive. To probe their ...

Working memory (WM), the ability to maintain task-related information, is fundamental to animal behaviors. Despite significance, there is limited knowledge on how it is orchestrated by the neural acti...

To get back on track after a distraction, the cortex appears to employ a rotating traveling wave, a new study by MIT neuroscientists finds.

Abstract. Cortical activity shows the ability to recover from distractions. We analyzed neural activity from the pFC of monkeys performing working memory tasks with mid-memory delay distractions (a cu...

To get back on track after a distraction, the cortex appears to employ a rotating traveling wave, a new study by MIT neuroscientists finds.

Rhythmic neural activity is considered essential for adaptively modulating responses in the visual system. In this opinion article we posit that visual brain rhythms also serve a key function in the r...

The appearance at the anatomical level of a canonical laminar microcircuit suggests that each six-layer column of granular cortex may mediate a canonical computation. Hypotheses for such computations ...

Although in vitro neuronal models are accessible and versatile systems for functional electrophysiological studies, the spontaneous and random formation of neural circuits often compromises the structural control and reproducibility. Here, we introduce a robust method for engineering human neuronal networks in vitro with single-cell precision and reproducibility. Our integrated platform combines direct laser-written microstructure templates and soft lithography-based fabrication of microscaffolds with functional multielectrode array recordings. This system enables high-throughput production of diverse circuit designs and allows for the exact placement of neurons within confined microenvironments. The system enables precise recording of spontaneous neuronal activity, as well as electrical and optogenetic stimulations. Using this approach, we constructed reproducible, bottom-up neuronal circuits composed of a defined number of human neurons. As a proof of principle, we employed these circuits to investigate ephaptic coupling, which refers to the modulation of neuronal activity by endogenous electric fields. Although it is believed to play a role in neural computations and cardiac conduction and is associated with epilepsy and arrhythmia, its mechanisms are unclear due to limitations in experimental models, both in vivo and in vitro. By controlling axonal proximity within microchannels and the number of neurons in the engineered circuits, we can quantify ephaptic coupling at different strengths, which validates theoretical predictions, including reduced action potential velocity, increased activity synchronization, and lower stimulation thresholds. Furthermore, the platform has broad potential for studying synaptic and nonsynaptic interactions, myelination processes, advancing disease modeling, and fundamental neuroscience research.

The typical conception of working memory is a mechanism to temporarily hold multiple discrete objects in service of other cognitive tasks in an item-b…

Reservoir computing is a powerful framework for real-time information processing, characterized by its high computational ability and quick learning, with applications ranging from machine learning to...

Predictions of future events have a major impact on how we process sensory signals. However, it remains unclear how the brain keeps predictions online in anticipation of future inputs. Here, we combin...

Perceptual experience depends on recurrent interactions between lower and higher cortices. One theory, predictive coding, posits that feedback from higher to lower brain regions decreases neuronal activity predicted by higher-level representations. Despite the widespread adoption of predictive coding in neuroscience, the correspondence to neurophysiological findings in sensory cortices remains elusive. Here, we review how the canonical patterns of intra- and inter-cortical interactions that occur during perception and shifts of attention deviate from those predicted by predictive coding. We argue that these circuit interactions are better captured by alternative theories, which we summarize under the umbrella term BELIEF. We review how BELIEF theories account for the inter-areal interactions during attentive perception.

Han et al. show that frontal theta oscillations rhythmically control access to working memory. The theta rhythm sweeps across the mental image, shaping behavior by coordinating spikes and beta oscilla...

The authors review evidence that the primary function of the brain, supported by distributed neural systems, is the predictive regulation of physiology (i.e., allostasis). An example from Alzheimer’s ...

“Exercise in absurdity” reveals flaws in Google Scholar’s productivity metrics