Editorial: Functional Aspects of Mesoscopic Brain Oscillations: Insights From in vivo and in vitro Studies

The authors refer to the recent studies showing that many θ cycles contain multiple γ bouts of various frequencies and propose application of novel methods, such as machine learning approaches, in order to extract the meaningful behavior-relevant information, without relying on pre-defined γ subtypes. The article by Speers and Bilkey reviews the vast literature on the abnormalities observed in θ, γ, and ripple oscillations in animal models of schizophrenia and discusses these findings with respect to studies in human subjects. In their method paper, Pompili and Todorova establish that classical methods fail to discriminate between freezing and rest, and propose a novel tool using cortical spindles, that can be recorded with a simple EEG surface electrode, to reliable disambiguate freezing from non-REM sleep.