Translating neurophysiological findings requires understanding the relationship between common measures of brain activity in animals (spiking activity) and humans (local field potentials, LFP). Prior ...

ALT: a woman says we have to work together in front of a wentworth sign

Rhythmic light stimulation offers solutions to innumerable cognitive and neurological disorders. However, like any neuromodulatory technique, responses to rhythmic light stimulation are highly variabl...

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...

Combining MEG, eye-tracking, and representational similarity analysis, this study shows that readers rapidly and sequentially extract orthographic and semantic information from upcoming words before fixation, supporting efficient reading.

Workshop Overview The Human Neocortical Neurosolver (HNN) is a user-friendly software tool for interpreting the cell and circuit level origin of human MEG and EEG signals. In this virtual event, we ...

The Summer Workshop on the Dynamic Brain is an intensive, project-based residential course with a focus on the neurobiology of sensory processing, coding, and neural population dynamics.

Various neuroscientific theories maintain that brain oscillations are important for neuronal computation, but opposing views claim that these macroscale dynamics are ‘exhaust fumes’ of more relevant processes. Here, we approach the question of whether oscillations are functional or epiphenomenal by distinguishing between measurements and processes, and by reviewing whether causal or inferentially useful links exist between field potentials, electric fields, and neurobiological events. We introduce a vocabulary for the role of brain signals and their underlying processes, demarcating oscillations as a distinct entity where both processes and measurements can exhibit periodicity. Leveraging this distinction, we suggest that electric fields, oscillating or not, are causally and computationally relevant, and that field potential signals can carry information even without causality.

The role of alpha oscillations (8–13 Hz) in suppressing distractors is extensively debated. One debate concerns whether alpha oscillations suppress anticipated visual distractors through increased power. Whereas some studies suggest that alpha oscillations support distractor suppression, others do not. We identify methodological differences that may explain these discrepancies. A second debate concerns the mechanistic role of alpha oscillations. We and others previously proposed that alpha oscillations implement gain reduction in early visual regions when target load or distractor interference is high. Here, we suggest that parietal alpha oscillations support gating or stabilization of attentional focus and that alpha oscillations in ventral attention network (VAN) support resistance to attention capture. We outline future studies needed to uncover the precise mechanistic role of alpha oscillations.