ABOVE: Patterns of neural activity known as alpha waves, often recorded via electroencephalography, may stem from the visual cortex.
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The paper
R.D. Traub et al., “Layer 4 pyramidal neuron dendritic bursting underlies a post-stimulus visual cortical alpha rhythm,” Commun Biol, 3:230, 2020.
Groups of neurons firing in sync produce predictable and measurable brainwave patterns, including the alpha rhythm, which dominates when we’re relaxed and our eyes are closed. While researchers have long suspected the alphas originate in a brain region called the thalamus, the waves’ definitive source and function remain elusive, says Roger Traub, a mathematical neurologist with IBM.
Experimenting with slices of rat brain tissue, Traub’s colleagues inserted electrodes into a piece of visual cortex and used drugs to chemically induce a stable alpha rhythm. This rhythm, the team found, emanated from pyramidal neurons in the fourth layer of the visual cortex. People think that because ...
