Rhythmic attentional scanning

Abstract

Sensory processing, short-term memory, and decision-making often deal with multiple items, or options, simultaneously. I review evidence suggesting that the brain handles such multiple items by "rhythmic attentional scanning (RAS)": each item is processed in a separate cycle of the theta rhythm, involving several gamma cycles, to reach an internally consistent representation in the form of a gamma-synchronized neuronal group. Within each theta cycle, items that are extended in representational space are scanned by traveling waves. Such scanning might go across small numbers of simple items linked into a chunk.