Role of beta coupling in higher cognitive function

Background and Aim : Holding information in the brain for a while is a common process underlying most of the higher cognitive functions such as attention, working memory, decision making, mental imagery, and planned actions. Recent evidence proposed the great contribution of beta-band activity in the maintenance of the status quo. There is a massive body of evidence for the role of beta-band activity in the sensorimotor cortex, however, the association of beta-band activity in non-motor tasks across the non-motor cortex is poorly understood.Methods : To explore the different roles of beta-band activity in cognitive tasks, we will review the beta-band coupling observation in system neuroscience papers. We focused on primate electrophysiological studies (ECOG and E/MEG in human and extracellular recording in monkeys) reported the role of beta-band activity in cognitive tasks.Results : As a unique component in indigenous tasks, the beta-band activity might be a simple tool for the top-down indigenous driven signal. By categorizing different studies in this field, we will provide alternative explanations for the neural mechanism of beta-band coupling.Conclusion : Furthermore, given the role of beta-band activity in disorders, we will cover the brain stimulation protocol which can be used in cognitive rehabilitation.

Keywords:

beta coupling , Indigenous top-down , working memory , electrophysiology