Multimodal Oscillation-based Connectivity Theory (eBook)

Satu Palva, PhD Docent in Neuroscience, Project Leader (Cognitive Neuroscience) University of Helsinki Her self-profile for the "Satu Palva group" in Cognitive Neuroscience at U. Helsinki Human cognition is serial, introspectively coherent, and has a limited capacity of few objects. Yet, the underlying neuronal processing is anatomically, spectrally, and temporally distributed. The neuronal mechanisms that underlie the binding of this scattered processing into unified attention, memory, and consciousness are poorly understood. Oscillatory synchronization may function as such a mechanism and underlie the coordination and binding of distributed neuronal activity. Our aim is to test this hypothesis by using magneto- and electroencephalography (M/EEG), MRI and fMRI. We are particularly interested in the neuronal mechanisms of attention, working memory, and consciousness. Specifically we address the functional significances of synchronization and multi band oscillations in these cognitive functions and the putative role of cross-frequency interactions as a mechanism for the integration of spectrally and temporally distributed processing. We also investigate what changes cortical oscillations and synchronization undergo during developmental and experience-dependent plasticity and their functional role in neuropsychiatric diseases.

Challenges in the analyses of large-scale synchronization from human MEG recordings.- Dynamical network states as predisposition of perception.- Neuronal synchronization, attention orienting, and primary consciousness.- The role of neuronal synchronization in visual working memory.- Thalamo-cortical communication and neural oscillations in large-scale network.- Neurocognitive decoding of aesthetic appreciation.- Neuromagnetic network synchronization in development and its alterations in clinical child populations.- Organization of functional networks in neurological and psychiatric diseases.