How does the brain selectively process signals from stimuli of different modalities? Coherent oscillations may function in coordinating communication between neuronal populations simultaneously involved in such cognitive behavior. Beta power (12–30 Hz) is implicated in top-down cognitive processes. Here we test the hypothesis that the brain increases encoding and behavioral influence of a target modality by shifting the relationship of neuronal spike phases relative to beta oscillations between primary sensory cortices and higher cortices. We simultaneously recorded neuronal spike and local field potentials in the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and the primary auditory cortex (A1) when male rats made choices to either auditory or visual stimuli. Neuronal spikes exhibited modality-related phase locking to beta oscillations during stimulus sampling, and the phase shift between neuronal subpopulations demonstrated faster top-down signaling from PPC to A1 neurons when animals attended to auditory rather than visual stimuli. Importantly, complementary to spike timing, spike phase predicted rats’ attended-to target in single trials, which was related to the animals’ performance. Our findings support a candidate mechanism that cortices encode targets from different modalities by shifting neuronal spike phase. This work may extend our understanding of the importance of spike phase as a coding and readout mechanism.

中文翻译：

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相对于 Beta 振荡的尖峰相移介导模态选择。

大脑如何选择性地处理来自不同方式刺激的信号？相干振荡可能在协调同时参与此类认知行为的神经元群体之间的交流中发挥作用。Beta 功率（12–30 Hz）与自上而下的认知过程有关。在这里，我们测试了大脑通过改变神经元尖峰阶段相对于初级感觉皮层和高级皮层之间的 β 振荡的关系来增加目标模式的编码和行为影响的假设。当雄性大鼠对听觉或视觉刺激做出选择时，我们同时记录了后顶叶皮层 (PPC) 和初级听觉皮层 (A1) 的神经元尖峰和局部场电位。神经元尖峰在刺激采样期间表现出与模态相关的相位锁定到 β 振荡，当动物关注听觉而不是视觉刺激时，神经元亚群之间的相移表明从 PPC 到 A1 神经元的自上而下信号传递更快。重要的是，与尖峰时间相辅相成，尖峰阶段在单次试验中预测了大鼠的注意目标，这与动物的表现有关。我们的研究结果支持一种候选机制，即皮质通过改变神经元尖峰阶段来编码来自不同方式的目标。这项工作可能会扩展我们对尖峰相位作为编码和读出机制的重要性的理解。这与动物的表现有关。我们的研究结果支持一种候选机制，即皮质通过改变神经元尖峰阶段来编码来自不同方式的目标。这项工作可能会扩展我们对尖峰相位作为编码和读出机制的重要性的理解。这与动物的表现有关。我们的研究结果支持一种候选机制，即皮质通过改变神经元尖峰阶段来编码来自不同方式的目标。这项工作可能会扩展我们对尖峰相位作为编码和读出机制的重要性的理解。