Abstract
The induced gamma-band EEG response (iGBR) recorded on the scalp is widely assumed to reflect synchronous neural oscillation associated with object representation, attention, memory, and consciousness. The most commonly reported EEG iGBR is a broadband transient increase in power at the gamma range ∼200-300 ms following stimulus onset. A conspicuous feature of this iGBR is the trial-to-trial poststimulus latency variability, which has been insufficiently addressed. Here, we show, using single-trial analysis of concomitant EEG and eye tracking, that this iGBR is tightly time locked to the onset of involuntary miniature eye movements and reflects a saccadic "spike potential." The time course of the iGBR is related to an increase in the rate of saccades following a period of poststimulus saccadic inhibition. Thus, whereas neuronal gamma-band oscillations were shown conclusively with other methods, the broadband transient iGBR recorded by scalp EEG reflects properties of miniature saccade dynamics rather than neuronal oscillations.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 429-441 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Neuron |
| Volume | 58 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 8 May 2008 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The study was triggered by a fruitful discussion during the 2007 winter retreat of the Interdisciplinary Center for Neural Computation at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. We thank Azar Dakwar for skillful assistance in running subjects, Prof. Avital Deutsch for the use of the eye tracker, Roni Tessler for guidance on operating the eye tracker, and Prof. Shlomo Bentin and Elana Golumbic-Zion for providing stimuli for experiment 3 and for fruitful discussions. We thank Shari Greenberg for her help with proofreading. This work was supported by grant 477/05 from the Israel Science Foundation to L.Y.D.
Keywords
- SYSBIO
- SYSNEURO