Cortical Traveling Waves in the Generation and Control of Memory-guided Behaviors

Working memory describes the ability to hold information in mind long enough to act on it. It is one of the most important cognitive skills a person can have. It shapes how well students learn, how effectively workers solve problems, and how people manage the demands of daily life. Disruptions in working memory are a defining feature of aging and of conditions like schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease. This project investigates whether a specific type of brain signal, called a traveling wave, serves as the communication channel that links the parts of the brain that store memories with the parts that produce the physical actions based on those memories. Using non-invasive EEG (brainwave recordings made with electrodes on the scalp), the investigators plan to conduct a series of experiments where healthy adults perform memory tasks while their brain activity is recorded. Understanding how the brain converts memories into actions has practical relevance for diagnosing and treating cognitive and motor disorders. Additionally, the brain signals studied in this project can inform the development of more energy-efficient AI architectures. The project also supports the training of graduate students in advanced neuroscience methods, contributing to a globally competitive STEM workforce, and all data and software are made freely available to the public. This project investigates the functional roles of large-scale cortical traveling waves in coordinating working memory (WM) storage and WM-guided behaviors. Prior work has identified two distinct traveling waves propagating between occipital and frontal cortex around the time of a WM-guided manual response: a forward-propagating wave that precedes and predicts response initiation, and a backward-propagating wave that follows response termination. The central hypothesis is that these waves serve distinct, mechanically dissociable functions in generating and controlling memory-guided behavior. Two specific aims are pursued. Aim 1 tests whether the forward-propagating wave carries WM content from visual to motor cortex (serving as a neural handoff), and/or whether it reflects analog visuomotor planning whose properties scale with the nature of the upcoming movement. Aim 2 tests whether the backward-propagating wave reflects top-down control over memory and/or a motor reset signal that prepares the brain for subsequent actions. These hypotheses are evaluated across seven preregistered experiments using a visuomotor task that independently manipulates memory storage and motor demands. Findings are expected to advance the scientific understanding of how sensory, mnemonic, and motor brain systems communicate during goal-directed behavior, inform the development of neural biomarkers for cognitive and motor impairment, and contribute to the design of more efficient neuromorphic computing and brain-machine interface technologies. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. NSF Award ID: 2547225 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Edward Ester | Institution: Board of Regents, NSHE, obo University of Nevada, Reno, RENO, NV | Award Amount: $683,669 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2547225 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2547225.html