Synchronization between prefrontal and posterior association cortex during human working memory

We measured coherence between the electroencephalogram at different scalp sites while human subjects performed delayed response tasks. The tasks required the retention of either verbalizable strings of characters or abstract line drawings. In both types of tasks, a significant enhancement in coherence in the θ range (4–7 Hz) was found between prefrontal and posterior electrodes during 4-s retention intervals. During 6-s perception intervals, far fewer increases in θ coherence were found. Also in other frequency bands, coherence increased; however, the patterns of enhancement made a relevance for working memory processes seem unlikely. Our results suggest that working memory involves synchronization between prefrontal and posterior association cortex by phase-locked, low frequency (4–7 Hz) brain activity.

Role of intrinsic synaptic circuitry in collicular sensorimotor integration

The superficial gray layer of the superior colliculus contains a map that represents the visual field, whereas the underlying intermediate gray layer contains a vector map of the saccades that shift the direction of gaze. These two maps are aligned so that a particular region of the visual field is represented directly above the neurons that orient the highest acuity area of the retina toward that region. Although it has been proposed that the transmission of information from the visuosensory to the motor map plays an important role in the generation of visually guided saccades, experiments have failed to demonstrate any functional linkage between the two layers. We examined synaptic transmission between these layers in vitro by stimulating the superficial layer while using whole-cell patch-clamp methods to measure the responses of intermediate layer neurons. Stimulation of superficial layer neurons evoked excitatory postsynaptic currents in premotor cells. This synaptic input was columnar in organization, indicating that the connections between the layers link corresponding regions of the visuosensory and motor maps. Excitatory postsynaptic currents were large enough to evoke action potentials and often occurred in clusters similar in duration to the bursts of action potentials that premotor cells use to command saccades. Our results indicate the presence of functional connections between the superficial and intermediate layers and show that such connections could play a significant role in the generation of visually guided saccades.

Synchronization of oscillatory responses in visual cortex correlates with perception in interocular rivalry

In subjects suffering from early onset strabismus, signals conveyed by the two eyes are not perceived simultaneously but in alternation. We exploited this phenomenon of interocular suppression to investigate the neuronal correlate of binocular rivalry in primary visual cortex of awake strabismic cats. Monocularly presented stimuli that were readily perceived by the animal evoked synchronized discharges with an oscillatory patterning in the γ-frequency range. Upon dichoptic stimulation, neurons responding to the stimulus that continued to be perceived increased the synchronicity and the regularity of their oscillatory patterning while the reverse was true for neurons responding to the stimulus that was no longer perceived. These differential changes were not associated with modifications of discharge rate, suggesting that at early stages of visual processing the degree of synchronicity rather than the amplitude of responses determines which signals are perceived and control behavioral responses.

Gamma rhythms and beta rhythms have different synchronization properties

Experimental and modeling efforts suggest that rhythms in the CA1 region of the hippocampus that are in the beta range (12–29 Hz) have a different dynamical structure than that of gamma (30–70 Hz). We use a simplified model to show that the different rhythms employ different dynamical mechanisms to synchronize, based on different ionic currents. The beta frequency is able to synchronize over long conduction delays (corresponding to signals traveling a significant distance in the brain) that apparently cannot be tolerated by gamma rhythms. The synchronization properties are consistent with data suggesting that gamma rhythms are used for relatively local computations whereas beta rhythms are used for higher level interactions involving more distant structures.

Experimentally determined chaotic phase synchronization in a neuronal system

Mathematical analysis of the subthreshold oscillatory properties of inferior olivary neurons in vitro indicates that the oscillation is nonlinear and supports low dimensional chaotic dynamics. This property leads to the generation of complex functional states that can be attained rapidly via phase coherence that conform to the category of “generalized synchronization.” Functionally, this translates into neuronal ensemble properties that can support maximum functional permissiveness and that rapidly can transform into robustly determined multicellular coherence.

Song selectivity and sensorimotor signals in vocal learning and production

Bird song, like human speech, is a learned vocal behavior that requires auditory feedback. Both as juveniles, while they learn to sing, and as adults, songbirds use auditory feedback to compare their own vocalizations with an internal model of a target song. Here we describe experiments that explore a role for the songbird anterior forebrain pathway (AFP), a basal ganglia-forebrain circuit, in evaluating song feedback and modifying vocal output. First, neural recordings in anesthetized, juvenile birds show that single AFP neurons are specialized to process the song stimuli that are compared during sensorimotor learning. AFP neurons are tuned to both the bird's own song and the tutor song, even when these stimuli are manipulated to be very different from each other. Second, behavioral experiments in adult birds demonstrate that lesions to the AFP block the deterioration of song that normally follows deafening. This observation suggests that deafening results in an instructive signal, indicating a mismatch between feedback and the internal song model, and that the AFP is involved in generating or transmitting this instructive signal. Finally, neural recordings from behaving birds reveal robust singing-related activity in the AFP. This activity is likely to originate from premotor areas and could be modulated by auditory feedback of the bird's own voice. One possibility is that this activity represents an efference copy, predicting the sensory consequences of motor commands. Overall, these studies illustrate that sensory and motor processes are highly interrelated in this circuit devoted to vocal learning, as is true for brain areas involved in speech.

Enhancement of sensorimotor connections by conditioning-related stimulation in Aplysia depends upon postsynaptic Ca2+.

Classical conditioning of Aplysia's siphon-withdrawal reflex is thought to be due to a presynaptic mechanism-activity-dependent presynaptic facilitation of sensorimotor connections. Recent experiments with sensorimotor synapses in dissociated cell culture, however, provide an alternative cellular mechanism for classical conditioning-Hebbian long-term potentiation (LTP) of sensorimotor connections. Induction of Hebbian LTP of these connections is mediated by activation of N-methyl-D-aspartate-related receptors and requires the postsynaptic elevation of intracellular Ca2+. To determine whether the enhancement of sensorimotor synapses during classical conditioning in Aplysia-like LTP of sensorimotor synapses in culture-also depends upon the elevation of postsynaptic Ca2+, we carried out experiments involving the cellular analog of classical conditioning of siphon withdrawal. We examined changes in the strength of monosynaptic siphon sensorimotor connections in the abdominal ganglion of Aplysia following paired presentations of sensory neuron activation and tail nerve shock. This training regimen resulted in significant enhancement of the monosynaptic sensorimotor excitatory postsynaptic potential, as compared with the sensorimotor excitatory postsynaptic potential in preparations that received only test stimulation. Infusing the motor neuron with 1,2-bis(2-aminophenoxy)ethane-N,N-N',N'-tetraacetic acid, a specific chelator of intracellular Ca2+, prior to paired stimulation training blocked this synaptic enhancement. Our results implicate a postsynaptic, possibly Hebbian, mechanism in classical conditioning in Aplysia.

Rapid local synchronization of action potentials: toward computation with coupled integrate-and-fire neurons.

The collective behavior of interconnected spiking nerve cells is investigated. It is shown that a variety of model systems exhibit the same short-time behavior and rapidly converge to (approximately) periodic firing patterns with locally synchronized action potentials. The dynamics of one model can be described by a downhill motion on an abstract energy landscape. Since an energy landscape makes it possible to understand and program computation done by an attractor network, the results will extend our understanding of collective computation from models based on a firing-rate description to biologically more realistic systems with integrate-and-fire neurons.