Neuronal Oscillations

The main goal of the 'Neuronal Oscillations' research group is to understand how oscillatory activity shapes the functional architecture of the working brain during cognitive processing.

While modulations alpha band oscillations (8-13 Hz) reflect anticipatory top-down modulation, bottom-up processing is reflected by gamma band synchronization (30-100 Hz). Specifically, the core hypothesize states that neuronal communication is gated by the inhibition of task-irrelevant regions, thus routing information to task-relevant regions. The functional inhibition is reflected by alpha band oscillations.

From a physiological perspective, the alpha oscillations provide pulsed inhibition reducing the processing capabilities of a given area. Active processing is achieved by neuronal synchronization in the gamma band which is phasically modulated by the alpha oscillations. According to this framework the brain can be studied as a network by investigating cross-frequency interactions between gamma and alpha activity.

The research tools applied by the group include computational modeling, MEG, EEG combined with fMRI, EEG combined with TMS and intracranial recordings. These tools are applied to investigate and interpret data from humans and animals performing attention and memory tasks.

Links

• Neuronal Oscillations lab