Most of the brain’s cognitive and executive functions are based on the coordinated
interactions of large numbers of neurons that are distributed within and across different
specialized brain areas. Transient synchronization of neuronal discharges in the beta
(13–30 Hz) and gamma (30–80 Hz) frequency ranges has been proposed as one possible
mechanism to dynamically bind widely distributed sets of neurons into functionally
coherent ensembles that represent the neural correlates of a cognitive content or
an executive program (
1
). This hypothesis is supported by a large number of studies that have demonstrated
that neural synchrony is involved in cognitive functions that require precise coordination
of distributed neural activity, such as perceptual organization, memory, and attention
(
2
).To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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© 2007 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.