J. Matias Palva, PhD Docent in Neurobiology, Project Leader P.O. Box 56, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki Phone: +358 9 191 57653 Fax: +358-9-191 57620 Email: matias-dot-palva-at-helsinki-dot-fi

Systems-Level Mechanisms of Perception, Cognition, and Action in the Human Brain

Neuronal processing is spatially, temporally, and spectrally scattered. A central question in neuroscience is how this scattered neuronal activity is bound to coherent perception, cognition, and action. Our mission is to characterize the neuronal-network level mechanisms that underlie this binding. We hypothesize that two specific forms of neuronal interactions, n:m-phase synchrony and nested oscillations, mediate the coordination and integration of neuronal processing distributed into hierarchies of network oscillations in many frequency bands.

We use magneto- and electroencephalography (MEG and EEG) as well as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to noninvasively investigate neuronal dynamics in the human brain. We also utilize intracranial recordings in human patients awaiting epilepsy surgery. For many years, a strong emphasis in our work has been on the development of data analysis and management methods allowing us to cope with the vast amounts of data produced by modern neuroimaging devices.

Personnel
Project leader: Docent J. Matias Palva, PhD
Co-leader: Satu Palva, PhD
Graduate students: Shrikanth Kulashekhar, BSc; Simo Monto, MSc (Tech.); Santeri Rouhinen, MSc

Selected publications
Monto, S., Palva, S., Voipio, J., and Palva, J.M. (2008). Very Slow EEG Fluctuations Predict the Dynamics of Stimulus Detection and Oscillation Amplitudes in Humans. J. Neurosci. 28: 8268-8272.

Palva, S., and Palva, J.M. (2007). New vistas for alpha-frequency band oscillations. Trends Neurosci. 30: 150–158.

Monto, S., Vanhatalo, S., Holmes, M.D., and Palva, J.M. (2007). Epileptogenic neocortical networks are revealed by abnormal temporal dynamics in seizure-free subdural EEG. Cereb. Cortex 17(6): 1386-1393.

Palva, S., Linkenkaer-Hansen, K., Näätänen, R., and Palva, J.M. (2005). Early neural correlates of conscious somatosensory detection. J. Neurosci. 25: 5248–5258.

Palva, J.M., Palva, S., and Kaila, K. (2005). Phase synchrony among neuronal oscillations in the human cortex. J. Neurosci.25: 3962–3972.

Linkenkaer-Hansen, K., Nikulin, V.V., Palva, S., Ilmoniemi, R.J., and Palva, J.M. (2004). Prestimulus oscillations enhance psychophysical performance in humans. J. Neurosci.24: 10186–10190.

Vanhatalo, S., Palva, J.M., Holmes, M.D., Miller, J.W., Voipio, J., and Kaila, K. (2004). Infraslow oscillations modulate excitability and interictal epileptic activity in the human cortex during sleep. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.USA101: 5053–5057.

Palva, S., Palva, J.M., Shtyrov, Y., Kujala, T., Ilmoniemi, R., Kaila, K., and Näätänen, R. (2002). Distinct  gamma-band evoked responses to speech and non-speech sounds in humans. J. Neurosci.22: RC211.

Linkenkaer-Hansen, K., Nikouline, V.V., Palva, J.M., and Ilmoniemi, R.J. (2001). Long-range temporal correlations and scaling behavior in human brain oscillations. J. Neurosci.21: 1370–1377.

Palva, J.M., Lämsä, K., Lauri, S., Rauvala, H., Kaila, K., and Taira, T. (2000). Fast network oscillations in newborn rat hippocampus in vitro. J. Neurosci. 20: 1170–1178.