Communication through coherence by means of cross-frequency coupling

• Autor(a) principal: González, Joaquín
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Cavelli, Matias, Mondino, Alejandra, Rubido, Nicolás, Tort, Adriano Bretanha Lopes, Torterolo, Pablo
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFRN
• Texto Completo: https://repositorio.ufrn.br/jspui/handle/123456789/30158
• topic: REM sleep; In vivo electrophysiology; Neuronal oscillations; Phase-amplitude coupling; Systems neuroscience

The theory of communication through coherence (CTC) posits the synchronization of brain oscillations as a key mechanism for information sharing and perceptual binding. In a parallel literature, hippocampal theta activity (4 - 10 Hz) has been shown to modulate the appearance of neocortical fast gamma oscillations (100 - 150 Hz), a phenomenon known as cross-frequency coupling (CFC). Even though CFC has also been previously associated with information routing, it remains to be determined whether it directly relates to CTC. In particular, for the theta-fast gamma example at hand, a critical question is to know if the phase of the theta cycle influences gamma synchronization across the neocortex. To answer this question, we combined CFC (modulation index) and CTC (phase-locking value) metrics in order to detect the modulation of the cross-regional high-frequency synchronization by the phase of slower oscillations. Upon applying this method, we found that the inter-hemispheric synchronization of neocortical fast gamma during REM sleep depends on the instantaneous phase of the theta rhythm. These results show that CFC is likely to aid long-range information transfer by facilitating the synchronization of faster rhythms, thus consistent with classical CTC views