Researchers developed a multilayer MEG framework that estimates activity across cortical depth non-invasively. Simulations and three human datasets show when reliable laminar inference is possible, en...

A longstanding question is how the brain predicts complex, naturalistic sensory events and updates those predictions when expectations are violated. Using intracranial recordings, the authors show tha...

Illusory transitions in conscious visual perception involve both early visual cortex and higher-order motor cortices.

Nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep is characterized by the interaction of multiple oscillations essential for memory consolidation, alongside a dynamic arrhythmic 1/ f scale-free background that may also contribute to its functions. Recent spectral parametrization methods, such as fitting oscillation and one-and-over-F and irregular resampling auto-spectral analysis, enable the dissociation of rhythmic and arrhythmic components in the spectral domain; however, they do not resolve these processes in the time domain. Instantaneous measures of frequency, amplitude, and phase–amplitude coupling (PAC) are thus still confounded by fluctuations in arrhythmic activity. This limitation represents a pitfall for studies of NREM sleep relying on instantaneous estimates to investigate oscillatory coupling. To address this limitation, we introduce “Rhythms and Background” (RnB), a novel wavelet-based methodology designed to dynamically denoise time series data of arrhythmic interference. This enables the extraction of purely rhythmic time series, suitable for enhanced time-domain analyses of sleep rhythms. We first validate RnB through simulations, demonstrating it accurately estimates the spectral profiles of individual and multiple oscillations across a range of arrhythmic conditions. We then apply RnB to publicly available intracranial electroencephalogram sleep recordings, showing that it provides an improved spectral and time-domain representation of hallmark NREM rhythms. Finally, we demonstrate that RnB significantly enhances the assessment of PAC between cardinal NREM oscillations, outperforming traditional methods that conflate rhythmic and arrhythmic components. This methodological advance offers a substantial improvement in the analysis of sleep oscillations, providing greater precision in the study of rhythmic activity critical to NREM sleep functions.

The cerebral cortex must flexibly alternate between locally segregated activity that supports specialization and long-range interactions that enable integration. How cortical networks balance these co...

Hemispherotomy is a neurosurgical procedure for treating refractory epilepsy by disconnecting a significant portion of the cortex. This study shows that the isolated cortex exhibits EEG patterns resem...

Brain rhythms seem central to understanding the neurophysiological basis of human cognition. Yet, despite significant advances, key questions remain unresolved. In this comprehensive position paper, w...

While the respiratory rhythm is increasingly recognized as a key modulator of oscillatory brain activity across the wake-sleep cycle in humans, very little is known about its influence on aperiodic br...

Communications Psychology - Using electrical recordings taken from the surface of the brain, researchers decode what words neurosurgical patients are saying and show that the brain plans words in a...

This study reveals how the brain dynamically shifts from learning to memory-guided behavior. Büchel et al. use electroencephalography (EEG) and eye tracking in a spatiotemporal learning task to show a...