track by The Creekside Ruffians

The Creekside Ruffians · Voytek the Soldier Bear · Song · 2025

YouTube video by U.S. Democratic Socialists

YouTube video by Lex Voytek

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 22 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02503-7In this Review, Preston, Smith and Voytek examine aperiodic neural activity in the brain and how measuring aperiodic activity can shed light on brain function and disease.

Various neuroscientific theories maintain that brain oscillations are important for neuronal computation, but opposing views claim that these macroscale dynamics are ‘exhaust fumes’ of more relevant processes. Here, we approach the question of whether oscillations are functional or epiphenomenal by distinguishing between measurements and processes, and by reviewing whether causal or inferentially useful links exist between field potentials, electric fields, and neurobiological events. We introduce a vocabulary for the role of brain signals and their underlying processes, demarcating oscillations as a distinct entity where both processes and measurements can exhibit periodicity. Leveraging this distinction, we suggest that electric fields, oscillating or not, are causally and computationally relevant, and that field potential signals can carry information even without causality.