{"title":"Cortex-wide spatiotemporal motifs of theta oscillations are coupled to freely moving behavior.","authors":"Nicholas J Sattler, Michael Wehr","doi":"10.3389/fnsys.2025.1557096","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Multisensory information is combined across the cortex and assimilated into the continuous production of ongoing behavior. In the hippocampus, theta oscillations (4-12 Hz) radiate as large-scale traveling waves, and serve as a scaffold for neuronal ensembles of multisensory information involved in memory and movement-related processing. An extension of such an encoding framework across the neocortex could similarly serve to bind disparate multisensory signals into ongoing, coherent, phase-coded processes. Whether the neocortex exhibits unique large-scale traveling waves distinct from that of the hippocampus, however, remains unknown. Here, using cortex-wide electrocorticography in freely moving mice, we find that theta oscillations are organized into bilaterally-symmetric spatiotemporal \"modes\" that span virtually the entire neocortex. The dominant mode (Mode 1) is a divergent traveling wave that originates from retrosplenial cortex and whose amplitude correlates with mouse speed. Secondary modes are asynchronous spiral waves centered over primary somatosensory cortex (Modes 2 and 3), which become prominent during rapid drops in amplitude and synchrony (null spikes) and which underlie a phase reset of Mode 1. These structured cortex-wide traveling waves may provide a scaffold for large-scale phase-coding of information across the cortex.</p>","PeriodicalId":12649,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience","volume":"19 ","pages":"1557096"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12222107/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2025.1557096","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"NEUROSCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Multisensory information is combined across the cortex and assimilated into the continuous production of ongoing behavior. In the hippocampus, theta oscillations (4-12 Hz) radiate as large-scale traveling waves, and serve as a scaffold for neuronal ensembles of multisensory information involved in memory and movement-related processing. An extension of such an encoding framework across the neocortex could similarly serve to bind disparate multisensory signals into ongoing, coherent, phase-coded processes. Whether the neocortex exhibits unique large-scale traveling waves distinct from that of the hippocampus, however, remains unknown. Here, using cortex-wide electrocorticography in freely moving mice, we find that theta oscillations are organized into bilaterally-symmetric spatiotemporal "modes" that span virtually the entire neocortex. The dominant mode (Mode 1) is a divergent traveling wave that originates from retrosplenial cortex and whose amplitude correlates with mouse speed. Secondary modes are asynchronous spiral waves centered over primary somatosensory cortex (Modes 2 and 3), which become prominent during rapid drops in amplitude and synchrony (null spikes) and which underlie a phase reset of Mode 1. These structured cortex-wide traveling waves may provide a scaffold for large-scale phase-coding of information across the cortex.
期刊介绍:
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience publishes rigorously peer-reviewed research that advances our understanding of whole systems of the brain, including those involved in sensation, movement, learning and memory, attention, reward, decision-making, reasoning, executive functions, and emotions.