There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
Following the discovery of context-dependent synchronization of oscillatory neuronal
responses in the visual system, novel methods of time series analysis have been developed
for the examination of task- and performance-related oscillatory activity and its
synchronization. Studies employing these advanced techniques revealed that synchronization
of oscillatory responses in the beta- and gamma-band is involved in a variety of cognitive
functions, such as perceptual grouping, attention-dependent stimulus selection, routing
of signals across distributed cortical networks, sensory-motor integration, working
memory, and perceptual awareness. Here, we review evidence that certain brain disorders,
such as schizophrenia, epilepsy, autism, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's are
associated with abnormal neural synchronization. The data suggest close correlations
between abnormalities in neuronal synchronization and cognitive dysfunctions, emphasizing
the importance of temporal coordination. Thus, focused search for abnormalities in
temporal patterning may be of considerable clinical relevance.