For over a century, the neuron doctrine—which states that the neuron is the structural and
functional unit of the nervous system—has provided a conceptual foundation for …

Sensory areas are spontaneously active in the absence of sensory stimuli. This
spontaneous activity has long been studied; however, its functional role remains largely …

Traditionally studies of brain function have focused on task-evoked responses. By their very
nature such experiments tacitly encourage a reflexive view of brain function. While such an …

During performance of attention-demanding cognitive tasks, certain regions of the brain
routinely increase activity, whereas others routinely decrease activity. In this study, we …

The majority of functional neuroscience studies have focused on the brain's response to a
task or stimulus. However, the brain is very active even in the absence of explicit input or …

The cortical microcircuit is built with recurrent excitatory connections, and it has long been
suggested that the purpose of this design is to enable intrinsically driven reverberating …

In the last decades, imaging membrane potential has become a fruitful approach to study
neural circuits, especially in invertebrate preparations with large, resilient neurons. At the …

How can neural activity propagate through cortical networks built with weak, stochastic
synapses? We find precise repetitions of spontaneous patterns of synaptic inputs in …

It has been widely reported that intrinsic brain activity, in a variety of animals including
humans, is spatiotemporally structured. Specifically, propagated slow activity has been …

In a departure from previous top-down or bottom-up strategies used to understand neuronal
circuits, many forward-looking research programs now place the circuit itself at their centre …