Coherence of gamma-band EEG activity as a basis for associative learning

Wolfgang H. R. Miltner, Christoph Braun, Matthias Arnold, Herbert Witte and Edward Taub
Additional contact information
Wolfgang H. R. Miltner: Institute of Psychology, Friedrich-Schiller-University
Christoph Braun: Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, Eberhard-Kals-University
Matthias Arnold: Institute of Medical Statistics, Informatics, and Documentation, Friedrich-Schiller-University
Herbert Witte: Institute of Medical Statistics, Informatics, and Documentation, Friedrich-Schiller-University
Edward Taub: University of Alabama at Birmingham

Nature, 1999, vol. 397, issue 6718, 434-436

Abstract: Abstract Different regions of the brain must communicate with each other to provide the basis for the integration of sensory information, sensory-motor coordination and many other functions that are critical for learning, memory, information processing, perception and the behaviour of organisms. Hebb1 suggested that this is accomplished by the formation of assemblies of cells whose synaptic linkages are strengthened whenever the cells are activated or ‘ignited’ synchronously. Hebb's seminal concept has intrigued investigators since its formulation, but the technology to demonstrate its existence had been lacking until the past decade. Previous studies have shown that very fast electroencephalographic activity in the gamma band (20–70 Hz) increases during, and may be involved in, the formation of percepts and memory2,3,4,5,6, linguistic processing7, and other behavioural and preceptual functions8,9,10,11,12. We show here that increased gamma-band activity is also involved in associative learning. In addition, we find that another measure, gamma-band coherence, increases between regions of the brain that receive the two classes of stimuli involved in an associative-learning procedure in humans. An increase in coherence could fulfil the criteria required for the formation of hebbian cell assemblies1, binding together parts of the brain that must communicate with one another in order for associative learning to take place. In this way, coherence may be a signature for this and other types of learning.

Date: 1999
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/17126 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:397:y:1999:i:6718:d:10.1038_17126

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/17126

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().