To support a range of behaviours, the brain must flexibly coordinate neural activity across widespread brain regions. One potential mechanism for this coordination is a travelling wave, in which a neural oscillation propagates across the brain while organizing the order and timing of activity across regions. Although travelling waves are present across the brain in various species, their potential functional relevance has remained unknown. Here, using rare direct human brain recordings, we demonstrate a distinct functional role for travelling waves of theta- and alpha-band (2–13 Hz) oscillations in the cortex. Travelling waves propagate in different directions during separate cognitive processes. In episodic memory, travelling waves tended to propagate in a posterior-to-anterior direction during successful memory encoding and in an anterior-to-posterior direction during recall. Because travelling waves of oscillations correspond to local neuronal spiking, these patterns indicate that rhythmic pulses of activity move across the brain in different directions for separate behaviours. More broadly, our results suggest a fundamental role for travelling waves and oscillations in dynamically coordinating neural connectivity, by flexibly organizing the timing and directionality of network interactions across the cortex to support cognition and behaviour.

为了支持一系列行为，大脑必须灵活地协调广泛的大脑区域的神经活动。这种协调的一种潜在机制是行波，其中神经振荡在大脑中传播，同时组织跨区域活动的顺序和时间。尽管行波存在于不同物种的大脑中，但它们潜在的功能相关性仍然未知。在这里，我们利用罕见的直接人脑记录，证明了皮层中 θ 波段和 α 波段（2-13 Hz）振荡行波的独特功能作用。行波在不同的认知过程中向不同方向传播。在情景记忆中，行波在成功的记忆编码期间倾向于从后到前的方向传播，而在回忆期间则倾向于从前到后的方向传播。由于振荡行波对应于局部神经元尖峰，因此这些模式表明活动的节律脉冲在不同方向上穿过大脑以实现不同的行为。更广泛地说，我们的结果表明行波和振荡在动态协调神经连接中发挥着重要作用，通过灵活地组织整个皮层网络交互的时间和方向性来支持认知和行为。