Brain mechanisms of consciousness and cognitive unconscious in real time: kinetics of 40 Hz prefrontal binding

Tomberg, C. A.
Brain Research Unit -CP 630, University of Brussels, Belgium
E-mail: ctomberg@ulb.ac.be

Scalp-recorded brain mapping can reveal sequences of distinct event-related potentials with high resolution (milliseconds). The high versatility of brain conscious electrogeneses requires analyses of the brain mapping data in real time, thus excluding electronic averaging which obliterates response variations along time and from trial to trial. For somatosensory (fingers) evoked responses, several cognitive cortical generators, namely P40, P100, N140 and P300 were identified in single trials through their characteristic brain mapping profiles in spite of the noise. The kinetics of 40 Hz gamma waves and their transient prefrontal-parietal synchronization were found to be critically associated with perceptual functions. Presence or absence and variations of single cognitive neurogeneses and 40 Hz binding documented the brain flexibility between the different trials. These were a.o. correlated to attention focusing and to cognitive resources allocations in the cognitive strategies.