Differential Recruitment of Inhibitory Control Processes by Directed Forgetting and Thought Substitution

Beta: bursts of cognition

Beta oscillations are linked to the control of goal-directed processing of sensory information and the timing of motor output. Recent evidence demonstrates they are not sustained but organized into intermittent high-power bursts mediating timely functional inhibition. This implies there is a considerable moment-to-moment variation in the neural dynamics supporting cognition. Beta bursts thus offer new opportunities for studying how sensory inputs are selectively processed, reshaped by inhibitory cognitive operations and ultimately result in motor actions. Recent method advances reveal diversity in beta bursts that provide deeper insights into their function and the underlying neural circuit activity motifs. We propose that brain-wide, spatiotemporal patterns of beta bursting reflect various cognitive operations and that their dynamics reveal nonlinear aspects of cortical processing.

Towards therapeutic electrophysiological neurofeedback in Parkinson's disease

Neurofeedback (NF) techniques support individuals to self-regulate specific features of brain activity, which has been shown to impact behavior and potentially ameliorate clinical symptoms. Electrophysiological NF (epNF) may be particularly impactful for patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), as evidence mounts to suggest a central role of pathological neural oscillations underlying symptoms in PD. Exaggerated beta oscillations (12-30 Hz) in the basal ganglia-cortical network are linked to motor symptoms (e.g., bradykinesia, rigidity), and beta is reduced by successful therapy with dopaminergic medication and Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS). PD patients also experience non-motor symptoms related to sleep, mood, motivation, and cognitive control. Although less is known about the mechanisms of non-motor symptoms in PD and how to successfully treat them, low frequency neural oscillations (1-12 Hz) in the basal ganglia-cortical network are particularly implicated in non-motor symptoms. Here, we review how cortical and subcortical epNF could be used to target motor and non-motor specific oscillations, and potentially serve as an adjunct therapy that enables PD patients to endogenously control their own pathological neural activities. Recent studies have demonstrated that epNF protocols can successfully support volitional control of cortical and subcortical beta rhythms. Importantly, this endogenous control of beta has been linked to changes in motor behavior. epNF for PD, as a casual intervention on neural signals, has the potential to increase understanding of the neurophysiology of movement, mood, and cognition and to identify new therapeutic approaches for motor and non-motor symptoms.