Further, transient oscillatory network activity was amplified during the spontaneous allocation of covert attention. We thus propose that the orchestration of transient oscillations facilitates inter-areal interactions supporting efficient cognition.

During decision-making coincidences of oscillatory transients increased in the alpha and beta frequency range prior to correct decisions in a parieto-frontal network. Behavioral relevance vanished for sustained (transient-free) amplitude coupling.

Further, we applied a behavioral task probing both decision-making and attention to identify large-scale networks modulated during cognition. Transiently increased oscillatory networks predicted decision behavior up to 1.5s prior to a choice.

For this study, we developed and validated a novel approach to temporally disentangle sustained as well as transient oscillatory and aperiodic components of dynamic functional networks.

How do large-scale brain networks interact to enable cognition? Here, we demonstrate that inter-areal amplitude-coupling mainly reflects coincident oscillatory high-amplitude transients, rather than sustained activity or aperiodic transients.