Retino-cortical stimulus frequency-dependent gamma coupling: evidence and functional implications of oscillatory potentials.

Long-range gamma band EEG oscillations mediate information transmission between distant brain regions. Gamma band-based coupling may not be restricted to cortex-to-cortex communication but may include extracortical parts of the visual system. The retinogram and visual event-related evoked potentials exhibit time-locked, forward propagating oscillations that are candidates of gamma oscillatory coupling between the retina and the visual cortex.

Reflections on the conceptual origins of neuron--glia interactions.

Glial contributions to the functioning nervous system are now recognized widely. This was not always so. What follows is an account of the several mid-20th century events that led to the explicit proposition that glia and neurons collaborate in the production of behavioral responses.

Models and musings about them.

Theories of brain function abound, and they range from Aristotle's idea that it cools the blood to the most recent conclusions deduced from fMRI scans. Today, such ideas, theories and constructs are often called models, the best of which blend the writer's laboratory data with what he or she has culled from the experiments others report. A model can therefore be viewed as the product of a unique collection of intellectual encounters with teachers-some living, some dead-at lectures and in libraries to which have been added countless unique personal experiences during experiments performed in laboratories.

The human Retinal Functional Unit.

It has long been known that readers of this page will move their eyes from one fixation to the next two to four times per second. It follows from this fact that each fixation triggers a unique optic nerve volley lasting up to 300 ms that contains all the information the retina processes between fixations. Here we give such volleys a name (Retinal Functional Unit, RFU) and use human subjects and interstimulus interval (ISI) experiments to define some of their properties.