Human brain oscillations: From physiological mechanisms to analysis and cognition

In the cognitive neuroscience community there is a strong and growing interest in the function of oscillatory brain activity. Brain oscillations can readily be detected with MEG, which also allows for indentifying the sources and networks producing the activity. The aim of this chapter is first to describe the physiological mechanisms responsible for generating brain oscillations in various frequency bands and regions. We will focus on insight gained from the animal literature and physiologically realistic computational modeling. Next, we will explain the signal processing tools typically applied to characterize oscillatory brain activity from human electrophysiological data in the context of cognitive paradigms. The final section will address the main ideas on the functional role of brain oscillations in various frequency bands. This discussion will be focused on recent findings applying MEG.