High-frequency oscillations - where we are and where we need to go

High-frequency oscillations (HFOs) are EEG field potentials with frequencies higher than 30 Hz; commonly the frequency band between 30 and 70 Hz is denominated the gamma band, but with the discovery of activities at frequencies higher than 70 Hz a variety of terms have been proposed to describe the latter (Gotman and Crone, 2011). In general we may consider that the term HFO encompasses activities from 30 to 600 Hz. The best practice is to indicate always explicitly the frequency range of the HFOs in any specific study. There are numerous types of HFOs: those in normal brain appear to facilitate synchronization and information transfer necessary for cognitive processes and memory, while a particular class of HFOs in the brain of animals and people with epilepsy appears to reflect fundamental mechanisms of epileptic phenomena and could serve as biomarkers of epileptogenesis and epileptogenicity in abnormal conditions such as epilepsy. A better understanding of the significance of HFOs depends on a deeper analysis of the mechanisms of generation of different kinds of HFOs, that typically are at the crossroads between intrinsic membrane properties and neuronal interactions, both chemical and electrical. There is still a lack of understanding of how specific information is carried by HFOs and can be operational in normal cognitive processes such as in working and long-term memory and abnormal conditions such as epilepsy. The complexity of these processes makes the development of relevant computational models of dynamical neuronal networks most compelling.