Dr Moritz Köster | Neuronal oscillations as a tool to investigate cognitive processes in adults and children

In the first part of my talk I will illustrate the utility of neuronal oscillatory activity measured in the human EEG for the understanding of episodic memory processes. In particular, the focus will be on the role of theta, alpha and gamma oscillations and the interplay between theta and gamma oscillations (phase-amplitude coupling) during encoding and retrieval. I will further indicate developmental changes in these frequency bands during childhood, as well as sleep-dependent changes associated with memory consolidation. In the second part of my talk I will present two recent works that illustrate the utility of experimentally evoked neuronal oscillatory activity, this is, by presenting stimuli in different driving frequencies (steady state visually evoked potentials; SSVEPs). In a first study, we presented stimuli at individual theta and alpha frequencies to further validate their functional role in episodic memory processing. In a second study, we presented the object and the background of a visual scene in different frequencies to understand the neuronal basis of developmental changes in context-sensitivity. To conclude, neuronal oscillations in the EEG are a useful tool to understand mnemonic processes in the human brain and manipulating neuronal oscillations experimentally (using SSVEPs) is a fruitful method to further elucidate human cognitive functions.

Poster