Identifying the occurrence and content of thoughts with oscillatory bursts

• Applicant: Dr. Golan Karvat
• Subject Area: Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 501729667

How thoughts arise from brain activity is one of the most fundamental and challenging questions in neurobiology. Thoughts and memories are believed to be represented in the brain by the activation of neuronal networks. Recently, in rodent electrophysiological work, we demonstrated that activation of neuronal cell assemblies is associated with bursts of transient high brainwave power, providing a potential bridge between the dynamic recruitment of brain representations and an observable electrophysiological index marking its occurrence. Ample evidence implies bursts’ involvement in the control of memories and consciousness content, yet no study has ever sought to directly test this involvement. Here, we propose that the improved temporal and spatial resolution of our burst-analysis methods (relative to trial-averaged methods) devised in our rodent work affords their use on a single-trial basis in humans, paving the way for detecting both the onset and the content of intruding thoughts. We propose to apply methods for burst analysis in humans, during a task tailored for detecting both the occurrence and control of intrusive thoughts. This task will adapt the Think/No-Think task, a well-established method for investigating inhibitory control over memory in humans. Objectively indexing the timing of conscious thoughts is a long sought-after objective in neurobiology. Linking the emergence of conscious thought to distinct electrophysiological signatures with a clear neurobiological mechanism will yield a compelling vehicle for understanding the neural basis of thought. Critically, it also carries significant implications for interventions that target intrusive thoughts in disorders such as OCD, PTSD, and depression, affecting 12% of the population in Germany every year.

• DFG Programme: WBP Fellowship
• International Connection: United Kingdom
• Host: Professor Michael Anderson, Ph.D.