Synaptic Tuning of Brain Rhythms: From Chemical Signalling to Cortical Oscillations

Stoof et al. investigate why distinct brain regions exhibit characteristic oscillatory frequencies, such as occipital alpha and frontal beta rhythms. Their work elegantly links openly available intracranial EEG spectra from 106 epilepsy patients to synaptic receptor densities from available autoradiography maps in three healthy donors. In the framework of dynamic causal modelling, they show that regional oscillations emerge from balanced combinations of excitatory (AMPAR, NMDAR) and inhibitory receptors (GABAR A or B), while neuromodulatory receptors exert subtler influences.