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Neural oscillations and information flow associated with synaptic plasticity

Zhang Tao^*

College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China

Abstract

As a rhythmic neural activity, neural oscillation exists all over the nervous system, in structures as diverse as the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, subcortical nuclei and sense organs. This review firstly presents some evidence that synchronous neural oscillations in theta and gamma bands reveal much about the origin and nature of cognitive processes such as learning and memory. And then it introduces the novel analyzing algorithms of neural oscillations, which is a directionality index of neural information flow (NIF) as a measure of synaptic plasticity. An example of application used such an analyzing algorithms of neural oscillations has been provided.

Key words: Synaptic plasticity; neural oscillation; neural information flow; cognitive functions; weak coupling

Received: 　　Accepted:

Corresponding author: 张涛　　E-mail: zhangtao@nankai.edu.cn

Citing This Article：

Zhang Tao. Neural oscillations and information flow associated with synaptic plasticity. Acta Physiol Sin 2011; 63 (5): 412-422 (in Chinese with English abstract).