ArticleNeuron2018
Theta and Alpha Oscillations Are Traveling Waves in the Human Neocortex.
Article in Neuron, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 180 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
180 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Comparative efficacy of dual- vs. single-node tACS in amnestic mild cognitive impairment: behavioral and EEG evidence.Translational psychiatry · 2026Trial
- Influences of electrode density on intracranial seizure localisation: a single-blinded randomised crossover study.EBioMedicine · 2025Trial
- Neural Oscillatory Signatures of Predictive Processing in Visual Statistical Learning.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Article
- Article
- Traveling waves along the cortical depth reflect structured synaptic inputs.Research square · 2026Article
- I Can't Hear You Both at the Same Time: A Temporal Dilemma During Inter-Regional Communication.eNeuro · 2026Article
- Sub-second fluctuations between top-down and bottom-up modes distinguish diverse human brain states.Current biology : CB · 2026Article
- The alpha rhythm: from physiology to behavior.Physiological reviews · 2026Review
- Enhanced Taylor-Aris dispersion in slender pulsatile annular channels: Implications for perivascular solute transport.Journal of fluid mechanics · 2026Article
- Hidden Spirals Reveal the Neurocomputational Mechanisms of Traveling Waves in Human Memory.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Traveling-wave transcranial alternating current stimulation (twtACS) causally links neural timing to cognitive function.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Three parsimonious spatiotemporal patterns in cerebellum reveal individual traits in function and behavior.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Propofol-induced loss of responsiveness reorganizes cortical traveling waves in the human brain.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Prolonged Visual Entrainment Induces Long-Lasting Alpha-Band Modulations.Psychophysiology · 2026Article
- Global neural oscillations underlie performance variability and attentional state fluctuations in humans.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Planar, spiral, and concentric traveling waves distinguish behavioral states in human memory.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Role of neural oscillations in depression: highlights on gamma oscillations.Translational psychiatry · 2026Review
- Article
- Hierarchical Flows of Human Cortical Activity.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
120 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Human cognition requires the coordination of neural activity across widespread brain networks. Here, we describe a new mechanism for large-scale coordination in the human brain: traveling waves of theta and alpha oscillations. Examining direct brain recordings from neurosurgical patients performing a memory task, we found contiguous clusters of cortex in individual patients with oscillations at specific frequencies within 2 to 15 Hz. These oscillatory clusters displayed spatial phase gradients, indicating that they formed traveling waves that propagated at ∼0.25-0.75 m/s. Traveling waves were relevant behaviorally because their propagation correlated with task events and was more consistent when subjects performed the task well. Human traveling theta and alpha waves can be modeled by a network of coupled oscillators because the direction of wave propagation correlated with the spatial orientation of local frequency gradients. Our findings suggest that oscillations support brain connectivity by organizing neural processes across space and time.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.