Functional MRI (fMRI) has uncovered widespread hemodynamic fluctuations in the brain during rest. Recent electroencephalographic work in humans and microelectrode recordings in anesthetized monkeys have shown this activity to be correlated with slow changes in neural activity. Here we report that the spontaneous fluctuations in the local field potential (LFP) measured from a single cortical site in monkeys at rest exhibit widespread, positive correlations with fMRI signals over nearly the entire cerebral cortex. This correlation was especially consistent in a band of upper gamma-range frequencies (40-80 Hz), for which the hemodynamic signal lagged the neural signal by 6-8 s. A strong, positive correlation was also observed in a band of lower frequencies (2-15 Hz), albeit with a lag closer to zero. The global pattern of correlation with spontaneous fMRI fluctuations was similar whether the LFP signal was measured in occipital, parietal, or frontal electrodes. This coupling was, however, dependent on the monkey's behavioral state, being stronger and anticipatory when the animals' eyes were closed. These results indicate that the often discarded global component of fMRI fluctuations measured during the resting state is tightly coupled with underlying neural activity.cortex | electrophysiology | local field potential | functional connectivity | monkey T he mammalian cerebral cortex is subdivided into specialized regions for various cognitive functions, such as the processing of sensory stimuli, memory, and the execution of movements. This functional specialization notwithstanding, the brain does not cease to show pronounced dynamic activity in the absence of cognitive or sensory stimulation. Significant ongoing spontaneous activity has been demonstrated using optical (1, 2), electrophysiological (3-5), and functional imaging (6, 7) techniques in several species under a variety of behavioral states. FMRI allows for visualization of large-scale, spatial patterns of such intrinsic activity, which is achieved by mapping patterns of activity covariation between brain regions. The temporal correlation between fluctuations in different regions is then often taken as a measure of "functional connectivity" between the corresponding brain areas (8-11). These fluctuations typically exhibit their highest intervoxel coherence at low temporal frequencies (<0.1 Hz) and can be observed during alertness (12, 13), sleep (14, 15), light sedation (16), and general anesthesia (17,18). Experiments are beginning to address the spatiotemporal characteristics of these spontaneous fluctuations in animal models (19)(20)(21), with initial studies in macaques suggesting a human-like pattern of functional connectivity (7,22).In humans, spontaneous activity is typically investigated in the so-called resting state, a term that is only loosely defined and which typically amounts to a subject lying in the scanner without an explicit stimulus or task. Under these conditions, analysis of spatiotemporal coherence of fMRI activity reveals several distin...

Summary While the mammalian neocortex has a clear laminar organization, layer-specific neuronal computations remain to be uncovered. Several studies suggest that gamma band activity in primary visual cortex (V1) is produced in granular and superficial layers and is associated with the processing of visual input [1–3]. Oscillatory alpha band activity in deeper layers has been proposed to modulate neuronal excitability associated with changes in arousal and cognitive factors [4–7]. To investigate the layer-specific interplay between these two phenomena, we characterized the coupling between alpha and gamma band activity of the local field potential (LFP) in V1 of the awake macaque. Using multicontact laminar electrodes to measure spontaneous signals simultaneously from all layers of V1, we found a robust coupling between alpha phase in the deeper layers and gamma amplitude in granular and superficial layers. Moreover, the power in the two frequency bands was anticorrelated. Taken together, these findings demonstrate robust inter-laminar cross-frequency coupling in the visual cortex, supporting the view that neuronal activity in the alpha frequency range phasically modulates processing in the cortical microcircuit in a top-down manner [7].