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LIT-1982: Dynamic Changes in Phase-Amplitude Coupling Facilitate Spatial Attention Control in Fronto-Parietal Cortex

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Properties5
StatusActive — read in full 2026-11-03 (NOTE-1528), from the publisher's open-access PDF; worth reading as, by its own account, the first human intracranial test of whether phase-amplitude coupling tracks the allocation of spatial attention in fronto-parietal cortex, with careful controls for evoked potentials and power. Its evidence is correlational: coupling strength predicts reaction time in 28 of 123 coupled electrodes, and nothing was manipulated, so it shows association, not that coupling improves attention.
Version2
Tagsneuroscience
Cited as “paper” byNOTE-1528 — Szczepanski et al. — Phase-amplitude coupling and spatial attention
Cited as “source” byTHEORY-1317 — During held covert spatial attention in human fronto-parietal and visual cortex, the amplitude of broadband high gamma (80–250 Hz) is coupled to the phase of an endogenous 2–5 Hz rhythm, more strongly for the contralateral field, and the trial-by-trial strength of that coupling correlates with faster detection; the evidence is correlational, so it shows that the coupling tracks attention, not that it improves it

Graph View

Szczepanski, S. M., Crone, N. E., Kuperman, R. A., Auguste, K. I., Parvizi, J., Knight, R. T. (2014). Dynamic Changes in Phase-Amplitude Coupling Facilitate Spatial Attention Control in Fronto-Parietal Cortex. PLoS Biology, 12(8), e1001936. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001936.

Key takeaways

  • Delta/theta (2–5 Hz) phase to high-gamma amplitude coupling during held spatial attention, in 123 of 273 electrodes across frontal, parietal and visual cortex (NOTE-1528).
  • Coupling strength predicts reaction time trial by trial in 28 electrodes; neither band’s amplitude does.
  • No manipulation, no waveform-shape control: it shows that coupling tracks attention, not that it improves it (THEORY-1317).

Standing in the record

Reported as Jennings’s evidence for attention as cross-frequency coordination. Unread, and A5’s account of how the paper uses it is unverified.

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