Pattern dynamics and stochasticity of the brain rhythms

Our current understanding of brain rhythms is based on quantifying their instantaneous or time-averaged characteristics. What remains unexplored, is the actual structure of the waves—their shapes and patterns over finite timescales. To address this, we used two independent approaches to link wave forms to their physiological functions: the first is based on quantifying their consistency with the underlying mean behavior, and the second assesses “orderliness” of the waves’ features. The corresponding measures capture the wave’s characteristic and abnormal behaviors, such as atypical periodicity or excessive clustering, and demonstrate coupling between the patterns’ dynamics and the animal’s location, speed and acceleration. Specifically, we studied patterns of θ and γ waves, and Sharp Wave Ripples, and observed speed-modulated changes of the wave’s cadence, an antiphase relationship between orderliness and acceleration, as well as spatial selectiveness of patterns. Further-more, we found an interdependence between orderliness and regularity: larger deviations from steady oscillatory behavior tend to accompany disarrayed temporal cluttering of peaks and troughs. Taken together, our results offer a complementary—mesoscale—perspective on brain wave structure, dynamics, and functionality.