Role of neuronal oscillations in memory driven visual processing

BMC Biology (2026) 24:143 Shaverdi et al. BMC Biology https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-026-02605-8 Open Access RESEARCH Role of neuronal oscillations in memory driven visual processing Yeganeh Shaverdi1*, Seyed Kamaledin Setarehdan1, Stefan Treue2,3 and Moein Esghaei2,4* Abstract Background Successful working memory of previous locations is critical for optimal navigation of the environment in primates. However, it remains unclear how successful working memory influences the statistics of sensory-motor probing (e.g., whisking, sniffing, saccading). This study addresses this gap by investigating the coupling between saccadic eye movements and neural oscillations in the frontal eye field. Results We demonstrate that the influence of working memory on saccadic behaviors involves a distinct coupling to beta rhythms. Analyzing local field potentials (LFPs) and saccadic patterns in rhesus monkeys performing a visual foraging task, we find that prior memory of visual targets is followed by a significant reduction of the synchronization of saccades with beta oscillations. This reduction suggests that working memory refines saccadic strategies by dynamically modulating neural synchronization, thereby optimizing visual search efficiency. Conclusions Our findings elucidate a fundamental mechanism through which memory may affect sensory-motor integration, highlighting the pivotal role of neural oscillatory adjustments in enhancing the cognitive processes that govern strategic eye movements and perception. Keywords Saccadic eye movement, Neuronal oscillations, Local field potential (LFP), Frontal eye field (FEF), SaccadeLFP coupling, Beta oscillations Background Primates utilize saccadic eye movements to strategically collect information about their visual environment, shifting their gaze from one point of interest to another during natural viewing. Extensive research has focused on *Correspondence: Yeganeh Shaverdi Moein Esghaei 1 Control and Intelligent Processing Center of Excellence, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran 2 Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Goettingen, Germany 3 Faculty of Biology and Psychology, University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany 4 Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran the role of selective attention in planning and guiding these movements [1–9]. More recently, there has been a growing interest in the relationship between oscillatory neural activity—particularly in visuo-motor brain areas, such as the frontal eye field (FEF)—and saccadic movements in primates [7, 10–12]. Oscillatory neural activity is critically important for brain computation, as it coordinates the timing and efficiency of neural networks across various cognitive functions, forming the foundation for complex behavioral responses [13–15]. A focus of these studies has been the coordination between brain oscillations and saccades during various cognitive processes, including attention [5], memory [11], and perceptual tasks [16]. Nevertheless, the influence of memory on the execution and timing of saccades remains unclear. Understanding this influence could offer significant insights into the selective processing of visual scenes, © The Author(s) 2026. 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To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Shaverdi et al. BMC Biology (2026) 24:143 highlighting differences between remembered versus non-remembered targets. Previous research has illuminated the synchronization between alpha oscillations and saccades, showing its crucial role in successful memory encoding within the visual and medial temporal areas [11]. However, the extent to which different types of memory influence these neural and saccadic dynamics remains unexplored. Our study aims to address this gap by investigating how the memory of targets previously and newly foveated modulates the phase-locking of saccades to neural oscillations within the FEF, extending our understanding of the neural underpinnings of visuo-motor coordination in a cognitive context. In a previous study [17], we demonstrated that spatial attention modulates phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) within the visual cortex by attenuating the link between low-frequency phases and high-frequency power in local field potentials (LFPs) [18]. This prior research highlights that such modulation can enhance the discriminability of visual stimuli by effectively managing oscillatory neural activities [19–22]. Here we extend this concept to the domain of memory and explore whether similar neural mechanisms underpin the influence of memory on saccadic eye movements. We propose that successful memory encoding might reduce the coupling of saccades to neural rhythms, particularly beta oscillations, potentially altering the phase-locking dynamics observed during Page 2 of 12 visual processing. This hypothesis suggests that memory, like attention, could play a crucial role in optimizing the efficiency of neural processes by modulating the synchronization between saccades and the oscillatory activities in the visual cortex. To test our hypothesis on the impact of memory on saccadic phase-locking, we utilized LFP recordings and saccade tracking in non-human primates engaged in a visual foraging task. This combination allowed us to quantitatively assess how memory correlates with the synchronization of saccades to beta oscillations in the frontal eye field. Our findings indicate that the memory of previous visual targets reduces the phase-locking of saccades to these beta rhythms, highlighting the role of memory in optimizing visual search efficiency by modulating neural synchronization. Results Here, we analyzed data from two monkeys performing a foraging task (Fig. 1), in which five potential targets shaped like “T” and five distractors shaped like “ + ” were presented simultaneously on a computer monitor. The monkey’s task was t (...truncated)