Planar, Spiral, and Concentric Traveling Waves Distinguish Cognitive States in Human Memory

Abstract

AbstractA fundamental challenge in neuroscience is explaining how widespread brain regions flexibly interact to support behaviors. We hypothesize that a mechanism of neural coordination is brain oscillations that propagate as traveling waves across the cortex in distinctive patterns that control when and where different regions interact. To test this hypothesis, we used direct recordings from humans performing multiple memory experiments and a novel analytical framework that measures the directional propagation of oscillations. We found that traveling waves propagated along the cortex in not only plane waves as seen previously, but also in spirals, sources and sinks, and more complex patterns. These traveling wave patterns correlated with various aspects of behavior, with specific propagation patterns reflecting broad cognitive processes, and the identities of specific remembered items. Together, these findings show that complex spatiotemporal patterns of traveling waves underlie human cognition and are relevant practically for neural decoding and brain–computer interfacing.