Smells like γ-synchrony: Insula-prefrontal communication depends on γ-synchrony and supports modality-specific changes in behavioral strategies

The prefrontal cortex is critical for many aspects of flexible behavior, but how it interacts with other brain regions to perform this function remains largely unknown. The insula is bidirectionally coupled with prefrontal cortex and known to be necessary for many aspects of cognition. Here we examined how the medial insular cortex (mIC) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) interact to promote flexible behavior. Disrupting mIC-mPFC connectivity interferes with the ability of mice to learn shifts from texture cue-based behavioral strategies to odor-based ones (but not vice-versa). Using genetically encoded voltage indicators, we find a corresponding increase of in-phase gamma-frequency synchronization between mIC and mPFC parvalbumin-expressing inhibitory neurons during texture-to-odor shifts. Finally, we confirmed that optogenetically perturbing this synchronization disrupts texture-to-odor (but not odor-to-texture) shifts. These results establish a critical role for gamma synchronization in insula-prefrontal communication, and show that this communication plays a sensory modality-specific role in flexible behavior. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. National Institutes of Health, R01NS116594, R01MH121342, R01MH129835

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Alpha and Beta Frequency Modulations in Motion Prediction Reveal Mechanisms of Predictive Coding in Perception

Abstract. Perception is an active process guided by prior knowledge and expectations, allowing the brain to optimize sensory processing and reduce uncertainty. Although modulations in alpha (7–13 Hz) ...

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High frequency brain waves help coordinate human working memory

Research from scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and collaborators has shed new light on how the human brain coordinates working memory, the process in which the brain...

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Distinct High-Gamma Signals in Primate Prefrontal Cortex Encode Belief Updating, Reward, and Cue Information During Value-Based Decisions

Understanding how prefrontal cortex (PFC) signals evolve over time to support decision-making requires characterizing both the spectral and temporal structure o

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Cross-region neuron co-firing mediated by ripple oscillations supports distributed working memory representations - Nature Neuroscience

The authors show that human neurons in bilateral corticolimbic sites fire together, modulated by working memory, and reinstate stimulus-selective firings when both sites briefly oscillate at 90 Hz, su...

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Distinct High-Gamma Signals in Primate Prefrontal Cortex Encode Belief Updating, Reward, and Cue Information During Value-Based Decisions

Understanding how prefrontal cortex (PFC) signals evolve over time to support decision-making requires characterizing both the spectral and temporal structure o

papers.ssrn.com

Distributed burst firing mediates optimized cortical encoding of natural self-motion

Burst firing in vestibular cortex enables distributed coding of natural self-motion by optimizing information transmission.

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Redirecting

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Extensive Experience Remodels Neural Task Circuitry to Escape the Frontal Bottleneck and Increase Automaticity of Categorization

Abstract. Object category learning is a foundational cognitive process. Most human category learning studies involve brief paradigms lasting a few hours and show increased shape tuning in visual areas...

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Selection and learning shape communication networks in the dog brain

Over tens of thousands of years of coevolution with humans, dogs have developed exceptional communicative abilities through both inherited adaptations and individual learning. Using diffusion MRI trac...

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Cerebellar rhythms: mechanisms, functions and translational opportunities - Nature Reviews Neuroscience

Neural oscillations across a range of frequencies contribute to the cerebellum’s roles in perception, prediction and action. Koch and colleagues describe the microcircuit dynamics through which cerebe...

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Susumu Tonegawa (1939–2026) - Nature Neuroscience

On 11 July 2026, neuroscience lost one of its most visionary scientists with the passing of Susumu Tonegawa at the age of 86. Across an extraordinary career spanning more than five decades, Tonegawa p...

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Are parts of the memory trace found in the ‘astroengram?’

Neurons have long taken top billing in memory, but researchers are making the case for astrocytes.

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Susumu Tonegawa (1939–2026) - Nature Neuroscience

On 11 July 2026, neuroscience lost one of its most visionary scientists with the passing of Susumu Tonegawa at the age of 86. Across an extraordinary career spanning more than five decades, Tonegawa p...

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There Is No ‘Hard Problem Of Consciousness’ | NOEMA

Consciousness is not separate from the physical world — our “soul” is of the same nature as our body and any other phenomenon of the world.

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New findings begin to resolve theta sweep debate

Theta sweeps have been mired in controversy for decades, but the emerging consensus view suggests that they function in attention and goal direction.

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Cross-Frequency Coupling as a Neural Substrate for Prediction Error Evaluation: A Laminar Neural Mass Modeling Approach

Abstract. Predictive coding frameworks suggest neural computations rely on hierarchical error minimization, yet the neural implementation of this inference remains unclear. We propose that cross-frequ...

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Grounded world models in biological organisms and future embodied AI

Recent advances in generative and embodied AI have been driven by large-scale predictive learning over multimodal data. However, the resulting systems remain largely based on passive training regimes ...

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Redirecting

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Representations of spatial saliency in auditory cortex are selectively organized through temporal coordination

Selective processing of behaviorally relevant sounds in complex environments requires dynamic modulation of auditory representations. Here, we show that behaviorally relevant sound locations selective...

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Frontiers | A proposal for realizing cognitive functions using traveling waves, phase-locked and synchronized patterns, holography, neural mixing, and single sideband communications

Waves are fundamental. In our view, waves in the brain may constitute and drive organized neural activity patterns on individual neural and population levels...

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Composing a science life with music - Nature Methods

Two scientists blend their love of music and science in different ways.

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Universal rhythmic architecture uncovers two modes of neural dynamics - Nature Communications

Brain oscillations are traditionally regarded as sustained rhythms. Here, the authors show that there are both high and low-rhythmicity bands, characterised by brief bursts, which can signal responses...

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Rarely categorical, highly separable representations along the cortical hierarchy - Nature

Cortical circuits prioritize diversity over categorical structure, supporting a computational regime geared towards high-dimensional, highly separable neural representations.

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Low-frequency modulations bridge the Language and Default Mode networks

As you read this sentence, you integrate meanings of individual words into complex, higher-order representations. In addition to the core language net…

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Short-term plasticity-based working memory spiking model is resilient to synaptic heterogeneity

The presence of activity-silent working memory has been increasingly supported by experimental observation, and short-term synaptic facilitation is suggested to underlie this phenomenon. Originally pr...

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Working Memory as Programmable Fast Weight Computation

Working memory (WM) stores information after sensory input disappears and later retrieves it in a task-relevant format, but the mechanism unifying storage and retrieval remains unclear. Here we combine neural geometry analyses of macaque dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity during a visuospatial delayed-match-to-sample task with computational modeling to test whether WM can be implemented as recurrent fast-weight computation. We found that the relational geometry of remembered locations was strongly expressed during sample presentation, degraded during the early delay, and reemerged before requirement in a partially distinct mnemonic subspace. A recurrent fast-weight programmer model, which implements a form of dynamic fast-weight memory closely related to linear Transformer computation, reproduced these latent-to-mnemonic dynamics. Direct inspection and perturbation of the model revealed that neural activity writes stimulus information into rapidly modifiable synaptic states, synaptic dynamics organize this latent memory over time, and recurrent readout queries the evolving state to generate task-relevant activity. These findings provide a unified account of WM storage and retrieval and suggest that biological WM and Transformer family architectures share an algorithmic principle of programmable temporary memory. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. National Natural Science Foundation, T2488101

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