It is demonstrated here that neurons in spatially separate columns can synchronize their oscillatory responses, which has, on average, no phase difference, depends on the spatial separation and the orientation preference of the cells and is influenced by global stimulus properties.
It is argued that coherence among subthreshold membrane potential fluctuations could be exploited to express selective functional relationships during states of expectancy or attention, and these dynamic patterns could allow the grouping and selection of distributed neuronal responses for further processing.
The mammalian visual system is endowed with a nearly infinite capacity for the recognition of patterns and objects. To have acquired this capability the visual system must have solved what is a…
The results demonstrate that local neuronal populations in the visual cortex engage in stimulus-specific synchronous oscillations resulting from an intracortical mechanism, and may provide a general mechanism by which activity patterns in spatially separate regions of the cortex are temporally coordinated.
Dysfunctional oscillations may arise owing to anomalies in the brain's rhythm-generating networks of GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid) interneurons and in cortico-cortical connections.
The first measurements of the electrical activity of the brain revealed prominent oscillatory activity, and until more recently the analysis of oscillatory patterns in the electroencephalogram and in field potentials recorded with intracerebral macroelectrodes has remained a major research tool of neuro physiology.
It is proposed that the pattern of synchronization flexibly determines thepattern of neuronal interactions, and that the mutual influence among neuronal groups depends on the phase relation between rhythmic activities within the groups.