Oscillatory control of cortical space as a computational dimension
Name
2025.06.24.661361v4.full (1).pdf
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7.01 MB
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Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Chen, Zhen
Brincat, Scott L.
Lundqvist, Mikael
Loonis, Roman F.
Warden, Melissa R.
Miller, Earl K.
Date Issued
December 22, 2025
Journal
Current Biology
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Citation
Chen, Zhen, Brincat, Scott L., Lundqvist, Mikael, Loonis, Roman F., Warden, Melissa R. et al. 2025. "Oscillatory control of cortical space as a computational dimension." Current Biology.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Flexible cognition depends on the ability to represent and apply relevant information to the current task at hand. This allows the brain to interpret sensory input and guide behavior in a context-dependent manner. Recent work has proposed “spatial computing” as a mechanism for this flexibility, suggesting that task-related signals organize information processing through spatial patterns of oscillatory activity across the cortical surface. These patterns are proposed to act as “inhibitory stencils” that constrain where sensory-related information (the “content” of cognition) can be expressed in spiking activity. Here, we provide a comprehensive empirical test of spatial computing using multi-electrode recordings from the lateral prefrontal cortex in non-human primates performing a range of cognitive tasks (object working memory, sequence working memory, and categorization). We found that alpha/beta oscillations encoded task-related information, were organized into spatial patterns that changed with task conditions, and inversely correlated with the spatial expression of sensory-related spiking activity. Furthermore, we found that alpha/beta oscillations reflected misattributions of task conditions and correlated with subjects’ trial-by-trial decisions. These findings validate core predictions of spatial computing, suggesting that oscillatory dynamics not only gate information in time but also shape where in the cortex cognitive content is represented. This framework offers a unifying principle for understanding how the brain flexibly coordinates cognition through structured population dynamics.
MIT Department
Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.11.072
