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The brainweb: phase synchronization and large-scale integration
F Varela1, J P Lachaux, E Rodriguez
1Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives et Imagerie Cérébrale, Hôpital de la Salpétrière, Paris 47 Boulevard de l'Hôpital, 75651 Paris Cedex 13, France. fv@ccr.jussieu.fr
Nature Reviews. Neuroscience
|April 3, 2001
Summary
Coherent cognition emerges from specialized brain regions coordinating through dynamic links. This review highlights neural synchrony across frequencies as the key mechanism for large-scale brain integration.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Systems Neuroscience
Background:
- Cognition relies on integrating information across distributed, specialized brain regions.
- The mechanisms enabling this large-scale integration remain largely unknown.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review mechanisms of large-scale brain integration.
- To propose dynamic links mediated by neural synchrony as a plausible mechanism.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on brain integration and neural synchrony.
- Theoretical argument for synchrony-mediated dynamic links.
Main Results:
- Large-scale integration balances distributed brain organization for coherent function.
- Dynamic links, particularly neural synchrony across multiple frequency bands, are proposed as the primary mechanism.
Conclusions:
- Neural synchrony is the most plausible candidate for mediating large-scale brain integration.
- Understanding these mechanisms is crucial for explaining coherent behavior and cognition.