In this review, we consider the potential functional role of beta-band oscillations, which at present is not yet well understood. We discuss evidence from recent studies on top-down mechanisms involved in cognitive processing, on the motor system and on the pathophysiology of movement disorders that suggest a unifying hypothesis: beta-band activity seems related to the maintenance of the current sensorimotor or cognitive state. We hypothesize that beta oscillations and/or coupling in the beta-band are expressed more strongly if the maintenance of the status quo is intended or predicted, than if a change is expected. Moreover, we suggest that pathological enhancement of beta-band activity is likely to result in an abnormal persistence of the status quo and a deterioration of flexible behavioural and cognitive control.

Beta-band oscillations--signalling the status quo?

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The Oxford Handbook Of Event Related Potential Components

We consider several key aspects of prediction in language comprehension: its computational nature, the representational level(s) at which we predict, whether we use higher-level representations to predictively pre-activate lower level representations, and whether we “commit” in any way to our predictions, beyond pre-activation. We argue that the bulk of behavioural and neural evidence suggests that we predict probabilistically and at multiple levels and grains of representation. We also argue that we can, in principle, use higher-level inferences to predictively pre-activate information at multiple lower representational levels. We suggest that the degree and level of predictive pre-activation might be a function of its expected utility, which, in turn, may depend on comprehenders’ goals and their estimates of the relative reliability of their prior knowledge and the bottom-up input. Finally, we argue that all these properties of language understanding can be naturally explained and productively e...

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What do we mean by prediction in language comprehension

High temporal resolution event-related brain potential and electroencephalographic coherence studies of the neural substrate of short-term storage in working memory indicate that the sustained coactivation of both prefrontal cortex and the posterior cortical systems that participate in the initial perception and comprehension of the retained information are involved in its storage. These studies further show that short-term storage mechanisms involve an increase in neural synchrony between prefrontal cortex and posterior cortex and the enhanced activation of long-term memory representations of material held in short-term memory. This activation begins during the encoding/comprehension phase and evidently is prolonged into the retention phase by attentional drive from prefrontal cortex control systems. A parsimonious interpretation of these findings is that the long-term memory systems associated with the posterior cortical processors provide the necessary representational basis for working memory, with the property of short-term memory decay being primarily due to the posterior system. In this view, there is no reason to posit specialized neural systems whose functions are limited to those of short-term storage buffers. Prefrontal cortex provides the attentional pointer system for maintaining activation in the appropriate posterior processing systems. Short-term memory capacity and phenomena such as displacement of information in short-term memory are determined by limitations on the number of pointers that can be sustained by the prefrontal control systems.

Working memory retention systems: a state of activated long-term memory.

Among the rhythms of the brain, oscillations in the beta frequency range (∼13–30 Hz) have been considered the most enigmatic. Traditionally associated with sensorimotor functions, beta oscillations have recently become more broadly implicated in top-down processing, long-range communication, and preservation of the current brain state. Here, we extend and refine these views based on accumulating new findings of content-specific beta-synchronization during endogenous information processing in working memory (WM) and decision making. We characterize such content-specific beta activity as short-lived, flexible network dynamics supporting the endogenous (re)activation of cortical representations. Specifically, we suggest that beta-mediated ensemble formation within and between cortical areas may awake, rather than merely preserve, an endogenous cognitive set in the service of current task demands. This proposal accommodates key aspects of content-specific beta modulations in monkeys and humans, integrates with timely computational models, and outlines a functional role for beta that fits its transient temporal characteristics.

Beyond the Status Quo: A Role for Beta Oscillations in Endogenous Content (Re)Activation.

The contribution of EEG coherence to the investigation of language.

Over the past 20 years, brain oscillations have proven to be a gateway to the understanding of cognitive processes. It has been shown that different neurocognitive aspects of language processing are associated with brain oscillations at various frequencies. Frequencies in the beta range (13-30 Hz) turned out to be particularly important with respect to cognitive and linguistic manipulations during language processing. Beta activity has been involved in higher-order linguistic functions such as the discrimination of word categories and the retrieval of action semantics as well as semantic memory, and syntactic binding processes, which support meaning construction during sentence processing. From a neurophysiological point of view, the important role of the beta frequencies for such a complex cognitive task as language processing seems reasonable. Experimental evidence suggests that frequencies in the beta range are ideal for maintaining and preserving the activity of neuronal assemblies over time. In particular, recent computational and experimental evidence suggest that beta frequencies are important for linking past and present input and the detection of novelty of stimuli, which are essential processes for language perception as well as production. In addition, the beta frequency’s role in the formation of cell assemblies underlying short-term memory seems indispensable for language analysis. Probably the most important point is the well-known relation of beta oscillations with motor processes. It can be speculated that beta activities reflect the close relationship between language comprehension and motor functions, which is one of the core claims of current theories on embodied cognition. In this article, the importance of beta oscillations for language processing is reviewed based both on findings in psychophysiological and neurophysiological literature.

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“Too Many betas do not Spoil the Broth”: The Role of Beta Brain Oscillations in Language Processing

Increased neuronal communication accompanying sentence comprehension.

Using the readiness potential of button-press and verbal response within spoken language processing

Healthy elderly people often experience a subjective loss of daily memory performance whereas an objective decrease in memory performance is often observed in patients with memory complaints. In th...

Supporting auditory word recognition with transcranial direct current stimulation: effects in elderly individuals with and without objective memory complaints.

Horst M. Mueller

Papers

The contribution of EEG coherence to the investigation of language.

“Too Many betas do not Spoil the Broth”: The Role of Beta Brain Oscillations in Language Processing

Increased neuronal communication accompanying sentence comprehension.

Using the readiness potential of button-press and verbal response within spoken language processing

Supporting auditory word recognition with transcranial direct current stimulation: effects in elderly individuals with and without objective memory complaints.