Theta rhythmicity governs human behavior and hippocampal signals during memory-dependent tasks

ter Wal, M. et al. (2021) Theta rhythmicity governs human behavior and hippocampal signals during memory-dependent tasks. Nature Communications, 12, 7048. (doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-27323-3)

Abstract

Memory formation and reinstatement are thought to lock to the hippocampal theta rhythm, predicting that encoding and retrieval processes appear rhythmic themselves. Here, we show that rhythmicity can be observed in behavioral responses from memory tasks, where participants indicate, using button presses, the timing of encoding and recall of cue-object associative memories. We find no evidence for rhythmicity in button presses for visual tasks using the same stimuli, or for questions about already retrieved objects. The oscillations for correctly remembered trials center in the slow theta frequency range (1-5 Hz). Using intracranial EEG recordings, we show that the memory task induces temporally extended phase consistency in hippocampal local field potentials at slow theta frequencies, but significantly more for remembered than forgotten trials, providing a potential mechanistic underpinning for the theta oscillations found in behavioral responses.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Wimber, Professor Maria and Hanslmayr, Professor Simon and Roux, Dr Frederic and Kolibius, Luca
• Authors: ter Wal, M., Linde-Domingo, J., Lifanov, J., Roux, F., Kolibius, L. D., Gollwitzer, S., Lang, J., Hamer, H., Rollings, D., Sawlani, V., Chelvarajah, R., Staresina, B., Hanslmayr, S., and Wimber, M.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Psychology & Neuroscience
• Journal Name: Nature Communications
• Publisher: Nature Research
• ISSN: 2041-1723
• ISSN (Online): 2041-1723
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Nature Communications 12: 7048
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

Related URLs

• Research Data
• Research Data

• Data DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5192567

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
313514		The spatio-temporal representational architecture of memory	Maria Wimber	European Commission (EC)	N/A	NP - Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging (CCNi)
313261		Neural oscillations - a code for memory	Simon Hanslmayr	European Commission (EC)	N/A	NP - Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging (CCNi)