Circular brain waves coordinate senses and actions as a neural clock
Scientists report a new class of traveling spiral brain waves that rotate across the cortex, driven by a circular wiring pattern in the somatosensory region and mirrored across hemispheres to connect sensory, motor, and subcortical areas. In mice, a whisker puff evokes clockwise waves whose shape shifts with arousal and task performance, suggesting these waves function as a spatiotemporal clock to sequence sensation and action and potentially guide motor learning. The findings, from cortex-wide imaging and deep-recordings, hint at a global brain mechanism that coordinates perception and movement, though its presence in humans remains to be confirmed.