Citation

Fiebelkorn IC, Kastner S. Trends Cogn. Sci. 2019; 23(2): 87-101.

Affiliation

Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.tics.2018.11.009

PMID

30591373

Abstract

Recent evidence has demonstrated that environmental sampling is a fundamentally rhythmic process. Both perceptual sensitivity during covert spatial attention and the probability of overt exploratory movements are tethered to theta-band activity (3-8Hz) in the attention network. The fronto-parietal part of this network is positioned at the nexus of sensory and motor functions, directing two tightly coupled processes related to environmental exploration: preferential routing of sensory input and saccadic eye movements. We propose that intrinsic theta rhythms temporally resolve potential functional conflicts by periodically reweighting functional connections between higher-order brain regions and either sensory or motor regions. This rhythmic reweighting alternately promotes either sampling at a behaviorally relevant location (i.e., sensory functions) or shifting to another location (i.e., motor functions).

Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

attention; motor; oscillations; saccades; theta; vision