Oscillatory phase coupling coordinates anatomically-dispersed functional cell assemblies
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1
Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California at Berkeley, United States
Hebb proposed that neuronal cell assemblies are critical for effective perception, cognition, and action. However, evidence for brain mechanisms that coordinate multiple coactive assemblies remains lacking. Neuronal oscillations have been suggested as one possible mechanism for cell assembly coordination. Prior studies have shown that spike timing depends upon local field potential (LFP) phase proximal to the cell body, but few studies have examined the dependence of spiking on distal LFP phases in other brain areas far from the neuron, or the influence of LFP-LFP phase coupling between distal areas on spiking. We investigated these interactions by recording LFPs and single unit activity using multiple microelectrode arrays in several brain areas, and then used a novel probabilistic multivariate phase distribution to model the dependence of spike timing on the full pattern of proximal LFP phases, distal LFP phases, and LFP-LFP phase coupling between electrodes. We show that spiking activity in single neurons and neuronal ensembles depends on dynamic patterns of oscillatory phase coupling between multiple brain areas, in addition to the effects of proximal LFP phase. Neurons that prefer similar patterns of phase coupling exhibit similar changes in spike rates, while neurons with different preferences show divergent responses – providing a basic mechanism to bind different neurons together into coordinated cell assemblies. Surprisingly, phase-coupling-based rate correlations are independent of inter-neuron distance. Phase-coupling preferences correlate with behavior and neural function, and remain stable over multiple days. These findings suggest that neuronal oscillations enable selective and dynamic control of distributed functional cell assemblies.
Keywords:
LFP,
neuronal oscillations
Conference:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011.
Presentation Type:
Symposium: Oral Presentation
Topic:
Symposium 3: The role of neuronal oscillations in computation and communication in multi-scale brain networks
Citation:
Canolty
RT,
Ganguly
K,
Kennerley
SW,
Cadieu1
CF,
Koepsell
K and
Carmena
JM
(2011). Oscillatory phase coupling coordinates anatomically-dispersed functional cell assemblies.
Conference Abstract:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00024
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Received:
09 Nov 2011;
Published Online:
15 Nov 2011.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Ryan T Canolty, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California at Berkeley, California, United States, rcanolty@gmail.com