The neuron mixer and its impact on human brain dynamics.

A signal mixer facilitates rich computation, which has been the building block of modern telecommunication. This frequency mixing produces new signals at the sum and difference frequencies of input signals, enabling powerful operations such as heterodyning and multiplexing. Here, we report that a neuron is a signal mixer. We found through ex vivo and in vivo whole-cell measurements that neurons mix exogenous (controlled) and endogenous (spontaneous) subthreshold membrane potential oscillations, producing new oscillation frequencies, and that neural mixing originates in voltage-gated ion channels. Furthermore, we demonstrate that mixing is evident in human brain activity and is associated with cognitive functions. We found that the human electroencephalogram displays distinct clusters of local and inter-region mixing and that conversion of the salient posterior alpha-beta oscillations into gamma-band oscillations regulates visual attention. Signal mixing may enable individual neurons to sculpt the spectrum of neural circuit oscillations and utilize them for computational operations.

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Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of interests N.G. and E.S.B. are inventors of a patent on neuromodulation using temporal interference (TI) of kHz electric fields, assigned to MIT. N.G. and E.S.B. are co-founders of TI Solutions AG, a company committed to producing hardware and software solutions to support TI research.