{"667381":{"#nid":"667381","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Researchers Discover Neural Clock That May Synchronize Visual Behavior","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAbout half of the brain is devoted in some way to vision. Our eyes observe the visual field, and that information is sent to the back of the brain, where it is processed. Then very quickly \u2013 almost instantaneously \u2013 we recognize the objects in front us. And we can shake the hand of an approaching friend, or we can move out of the way of oncoming traffic.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIt\u2019s lot to take in. All that precise recognition in a single glance takes an enormous amount of computation and synchronization. Driving this activity are neurons firing and communicating across the vast space between our ears so we can focus quickly and reliably on the right features. How all this complicated collaboration comes together is not entirely understood.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBut a team of Georgia Tech researchers trying to solve the mystery has discovered an internal \u201cclock\u201d that timestamps and synchronizes visual computation across different areas of the brain. The results of their studies help explain the remarkable precision of visual processing in a healthy brain.\u0026nbsp; Their findings also suggest new ways to think about brain activity when visual perception is neurologically impaired.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s like what happens in a computer chip,\u201d said \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/bme.gatech.edu\/bme\/faculty\/Bilal-Haider\u0022\u003EBilal Haider\u003C\/a\u003E, assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, whose lab published their work recently in the journal \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.biorxiv.org\/content\/10.1101\/2022.05.19.491028v1\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003ENeuron\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E. \u201cAll the instructions from open apps and software have to flow in a precise sequence so messages don\u2019t get scrambled \u2013 and so your apps don\u2019t crash!\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EElectrified silicon chips are super-fast, so in a computer, the clock stamps and runs instructions millions of times a second. Haider and his team found that the visual processing clock, made of wet, squishy neurons, does pretty good, too.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe found that the visual system runs instructions 60 times a second and makes sure each cycle of the clock is precisely timed across multiple visual regions of the brain,\u201d Haider said. \u201cWe suspect that desynchronizing this clock could potentially underlie all sorts of visual processing deficits, which could mean scrambled, jumbled visual messages.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ENarrowing the Frequency\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ENeurons work well together when one group sends a message, and the other group is standing ready to receive it. Rhythmic brain oscillations are thought to play a key role in this process of communication and computation.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EEEG-based neural oscillations are often observed in neurological diseases, noted the study\u2019s lead author, Donghoon Shin, \u201cbut the specific function of neural oscillations remains an open question. Our paper provides a fascinating example at the intersection of neural oscillation, cooperation between brain areas, temporal coding, and visual perception.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EShin, who was a graduate student in the Haider lab during the research, led the examination of narrowband gamma (NBG) oscillation, focusing on the relationship between oscillation timing and visual function.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EOscillations occur at different frequencies in the brain, with higher frequency gamma oscillations controlling communication between different regions of the brain. Previous studies of the visual system have proposed that broadband gamma oscillations facilitate brain-wide signal coordination underlying visual perception.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBut the broadband frequency between different brain areas varies widely and doesn\u2019t seem to provide the precise synchronization needed for optimum neural activity. Shin, Haider, and team performed new experiments that demonstrate how narrowband gamma oscillations can propagate and synchronize throughout an awake brain\u2019s visual system with great precision.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe consistent rate of NBG oscillations (between 55 to 65 times per second, versus 30 to 80 times for broadband gamma) makes it easier for different brain areas to sync up, Shin said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMore broadly, NBG oscillations across brain areas might be a way to \u2018pay attention\u2019 to the right features or locations for effective visual behavior,\u201d Haider said. \u201cSo, a next step in the research would be to test the NBG clock, to see how it might be altered in neurological conditions where visual behavior is impaired and try to figure out if we need to \u2018reset\u2019 the visual clock to help improve behavior or attention.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ECITATION:\u0026nbsp; Donghoon Shin, Kayla Peelman, Joseph Del Rosario, Bilal Haider. \u201cNarrowband gamma oscillations propagate and synchronize \u2026\u201d\u0026nbsp; \u003Cem\u003ENeuron\u003C\/em\u003E https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1101\/2022.05.19.491028\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ENarrowband gamma oscillations across brain areas might be a way to \u2018pay attention\u2019 to the right features or locations for effective visual behavior\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Narrowband gamma oscillations across brain areas might be a way to \u2018pay attention\u2019 to the right features or locations for effective visual behavior"}],"uid":"28153","created_gmt":"2023-04-17 15:33:55","changed_gmt":"2023-04-24 20:50:14","author":"Jerry Grillo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2023-04-17T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2023-04-17T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"670564":{"id":"670564","type":"image","title":"Donghoon and Bilal.jpg","body":null,"created":"1681749072","gmt_created":"2023-04-17 16:31:12","changed":"1681749072","gmt_changed":"2023-04-17 16:31:12","alt":"BME researchers shin and haider","file":{"fid":"253447","name":"Donghoon and Bilal.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2023\/04\/17\/Donghoon%20and%20Bilal_2.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2023\/04\/17\/Donghoon%20and%20Bilal_2.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1452160,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2023\/04\/17\/Donghoon%20and%20Bilal_2.jpg?itok=nIYAPmWD"}}},"media_ids":["670564"],"groups":[{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"138","name":"Biotechnology, Health, Bioengineering, Genetics"}],"keywords":[{"id":"1612","name":"BME"},{"id":"183799","name":"Gamma"},{"id":"187234","name":"gamma brain waves"},{"id":"180998","name":"visual cortex"},{"id":"191643","name":"go-rersearchnews"},{"id":"187423","name":"go-bio"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}