TY - JOUR
T1 - Stimulus dependence of gamma oscillations in human visual cortex
AU - Hermes, D.
AU - Miller, K. J.
AU - Wandell, B. A.
AU - Winawer, J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by National Eye Institute at National Institutes of Health grant RO1-EY03164 (B.A.W.), National Eye Institute at National Institutes of Health grant R00-EY022116 (J. W.), the Dean’s Postdoctoral Fellowships program from the Stanford University School of Medicine (D.H.), National Institutes of Health grant RO1-EY02231801A1 (Kalanit Grill Spector) and Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS) and Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) (Corentin Jacques).
Funding Information:
This work was supported by National Eye Institute at National Institutes of Health grant RO1-EY03164 (B.A.W.), National Eye Institute at National Institutes of Health grant R00-EY022116 (J. W.), the Dean's Postdoctoral Fellowships program from the Stanford University School of Medicine (D.H.), National Institutes of Health grant RO1-EY02231801A1 (Kalanit Grill Spector) and Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS) and Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) (Corentin Jacques).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author 2014.
PY - 2015/9/1
Y1 - 2015/9/1
N2 - A striking feature of some field potential recordings in visual cortex is a rhythmic oscillation within the gamma band (30-80 Hz). These oscillations have been proposed to underlie computations in perception, attention, and information transmission. Recent studies of cortical field potentials, including human electrocorticography (ECoG), have emphasized another signal within the gamma band, a nonoscil-latory, broadband signal, spanning 80-200 Hz. It remains unclear under what conditions gamma oscillations are elicited in visual cortex, whether they are necessary and ubiquitous in visual encoding, and what relationship they have to nonoscillatory, broadband field potentials. We demonstrate that ECoG responses in human visual cortex (V1/V2/V3) can include robust narrowband gamma oscillations, and that these oscillations are reliably elicited by some spatial contrast patterns (luminance gratings) but not by others (noise patterns and many natural images). The gamma oscillations can be conspicuous and robust, but because they are absent for many stimuli, which observers can see and recognize, the oscillations are not necessary for seeing. In contrast, all visual stimuli induced broadband spectral changes in ECoG responses. Asynchronous neural signals in visual cortex, reflected in the broadband ECoG response, can support transmission of information for perception and recognition in the absence of pronounced gamma oscillations.
AB - A striking feature of some field potential recordings in visual cortex is a rhythmic oscillation within the gamma band (30-80 Hz). These oscillations have been proposed to underlie computations in perception, attention, and information transmission. Recent studies of cortical field potentials, including human electrocorticography (ECoG), have emphasized another signal within the gamma band, a nonoscil-latory, broadband signal, spanning 80-200 Hz. It remains unclear under what conditions gamma oscillations are elicited in visual cortex, whether they are necessary and ubiquitous in visual encoding, and what relationship they have to nonoscillatory, broadband field potentials. We demonstrate that ECoG responses in human visual cortex (V1/V2/V3) can include robust narrowband gamma oscillations, and that these oscillations are reliably elicited by some spatial contrast patterns (luminance gratings) but not by others (noise patterns and many natural images). The gamma oscillations can be conspicuous and robust, but because they are absent for many stimuli, which observers can see and recognize, the oscillations are not necessary for seeing. In contrast, all visual stimuli induced broadband spectral changes in ECoG responses. Asynchronous neural signals in visual cortex, reflected in the broadband ECoG response, can support transmission of information for perception and recognition in the absence of pronounced gamma oscillations.
KW - Broadband spectral change
KW - Electrocorticography
KW - Gamma oscillations
KW - Human electrophysiology
KW - Visual cortex
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U2 - 10.1093/cercor/bhu091
DO - 10.1093/cercor/bhu091
M3 - Article
C2 - 24855114
AN - SCOPUS:84983316462
SN - 1047-3211
VL - 25
SP - 2951
EP - 2959
JO - Cerebral Cortex
JF - Cerebral Cortex
IS - 9
ER -