Neuroscientists have long known that noisy oscillations are generated in the brain during sensation, cognition and behavior, but the functional role of oscillations in the brain remains poorly understood. In this talk, I will discuss a new theoretical framework for sensory encoding and pattern recognition that hinges on a shared noisy oscillatory “clock” signal in a population of neurons. I will also discuss my recent efforts to confirm or refine this framework through the analysis of oscillations, mitral cell spike timing and spike synchrony in the olfactory bulb of behaving mice.
