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Updated: May 2, 2026

Optogenetic Entrainment of Hippocampal Theta Oscillations in Behaving Mice
Published on: June 29, 2018
Role of neuronal oscillations in memory driven visual processing
Yeganeh Shaverdi1, Seyed Kamaledin Setarehdan2, Stefan Treue3,4
1Control and Intelligent Processing Center of Excellence, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. y.shaverdi@ut.ac.ir.
Background:
Successful working memory of previous locations is critical for optimal navigation of the environment in primates. However, it remains unclear how successful working memory influences the statistics of sensory-motor probing (e.g., whisking, sniffing, saccading). This study addresses this gap by investigating the coupling between saccadic eye movements and neural oscillations in the frontal eye field.
Results:
We demonstrate that the influence of working memory on saccadic behaviors involves a distinct coupling to beta rhythms. Analyzing local field potentials (LFPs) and saccadic patterns in rhesus monkeys performing a visual foraging task, we find that prior memory of visual targets is followed by a significant reduction of the synchronization of saccades with beta oscillations. This reduction suggests that working memory refines saccadic strategies by dynamically modulating neural synchronization, thereby optimizing visual search efficiency.
Conclusions:
Our findings elucidate a fundamental mechanism through which memory may affect sensory-motor integration, highlighting the pivotal role of neural oscillatory adjustments in enhancing the cognitive processes that govern strategic eye movements and perception.
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