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Updated: Jul 3, 2026

Optogenetic Entrainment of Hippocampal Theta Oscillations in Behaving Mice
Published on: June 29, 2018
Effect of synaptic connectivity on long-range synchronization of fast cortical oscillations
M Bazhenov1, N F Rulkov, I Timofeev
1Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA. Maksim.Bazhenov@ucr.edu
Abstract:
Cortical gamma oscillations in the 20- to 80-Hz range are associated with attentiveness and sensory perception and have strong connections to both cognitive processing and temporal binding of sensory stimuli. These gamma oscillations become synchronized within a few milliseconds over distances spanning a few millimeters in spite of synaptic delays. In this study using in vivo recordings and large-scale cortical network models, we reveal a critical role played by the network geometry in achieving precise long-range synchronization in the gamma frequency band. Our results indicate that the presence of many independent synaptic pathways in a two-dimensional network facilitate precise phase synchronization of fast gamma band oscillations with nearly zero phase delays between remote network sites. These findings predict a common mechanism of precise oscillatory synchronization in neuronal networks.
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