Beta: bursts of cognition.

Brief beta bursts, rather than sustained oscillations, support cognition by providing transient, functional inhibition. Analyzing the timing of beta bursts helps establish neural correlates of cognitive behavior on a single trial level. The intermittent and nonlinear nature of beta bursts provides novel insights into interareal interactions. Diversity of beta burst types may reflect differences in circuit-level origins and may yield insights into the underlying activity motifs and function. We suggest that spatiotemporal patterns of beta bursting implement cognitive control operations underlying goal-directed behavior. Beta oscillations are linked to the control of goal-directed processing of sensory information and the timing of motor output. Recent evidence demonstrates they are not sustained but organized into intermittent high-power bursts mediating timely functional inhibition. This implies there is a considerable moment-to-moment variation in the neural dynamics supporting cognition. Beta bursts thus offer new opportunities for studying how sensory inputs are selectively processed, reshaped by inhibitory cognitive operations and ultimately result in motor actions. Recent method advances reveal diversity in beta bursts that provide deeper insights into their function and the underlying neural circuit activity motifs. We propose that brain-wide, spatiotemporal patterns of beta bursting reflect various cognitive operations and that their dynamics reveal nonlinear aspects of cortical processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]