Brain Rhythms Provide a Framework for Neural Syntax

Abstract

Brain oscillations are present in the same form in all mammals and represent a fundamental aspect of neuronal computation, including the generation of movement patterns, speech, and music production. Neuronal oscillators readily entrain each other, making the exchange of messages between brain areas effective. Because all neuronal oscillations are based on inhibition, they can parse and concatenate neuronal messages, a prerequisite for any coding mechanism. This chapter discusses how the hierarchical nature of cross-frequency–coupled rhythms can serve as a scaffold for combining neuronal letters into words and words into sentences, thus providing a syntactic structure for information exchange.