Stimulus-related gamma oscillations in primate auditory cortex

With a multielectrode system, we explored neuronal activity in the gamma range (>40 Hz) in the primary and caudomedial auditory cortex of six anesthetized macaque monkeys. Stimuli were tone bursts of 100- to 500-ms duration that were presented at sound pressure levels of 40-60 dB and were varied over a wide range of frequencies. These stimuli induced gamma oscillations, not phase-locked to the onset of stimulation, in 465 of 616 multiunit clusters and at 321 of 422 sites at which field potentials were recorded. Occurrence of gamma activity was stimulus dependent. It was mostly seen when the stimulus was at the units' preferred frequency. The incidence of gamma activity decreased with increasing difference between stimulus frequency and preferred frequency. gamma activity emerged 100-900 ms after stimulus onset with highest incidence ~120 ms. Amplitudes of stimulus-induced gamma oscillations in field potentials were, on average, almost twice the amplitude of spontaneously occurring gamma oscillations. gamma activity at different sites within the primary and the caudomedial auditory field could be synchronized at near-zero phase. Synchrony depended on the spatial distance and on the receptive fields similarity of pairs of units. It decreased with increasing distance between recording sites and increased with similarity of preferred frequencies of the pairs of units. The results indicate that stimulus-induced gamma oscillations originate from sources in the auditory cortex. They further suggest that gamma oscillations may provide a mechanism utilized in many parts of the sensory cortex, including the auditory cortex, to integrate neurons according to the similarity of their receptive fields.