Rapidly oscillating patterns of electrical potentials from nerve cells have been recently reported to be synchronized across multiple regions of the visual cortex of the brain. The origins and function of the oscillations are unknown, but their specificity to certain stimuli and synchrony across regions suggest they may relate to some fundamental visual or cognitive function. This project will test whether the synchronized oscillation in visual cortex is related to visual perception. Specifically, it will test the novel idea that the synchronous neural activity across a region of cortex reflects a cohesive visual image assembled from visual stimuli that move together in a "coherent" way. Single nerve cells in the cortex are known to handle specific properties of visual images, such as location, orientation, color, and temporal features. These experiments will record from single neurons at multiple sites in visual cortex while presenting visual stimuli that are either independent, or connected into a coherently moving object. This test will determine if the coherent oscillation appears only with coherent movement of stimulus pieces. If so, further experiments will explore how the coherence may be related to perception. There is a risk that if not, the excitement about such oscillations may considerably diminish. The impact of this limited study of this novel idea will be very high on visual science and neuroscience in general, and if the outcome is positive, the impact will extend to cognitive science as well.
