Gamma oscillations provide a stable geometric scaffold for color representation in primate inferior temporal cortex
6 affiliations
- 1School of Brain Science and Brain Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
- 2College of Biomedical Engineering and Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
- 3MOE Frontier Science Center for Brain Science and Brain-Machine Integration, School of Brain Science and Brain Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
- 4National Key Laboratory of Brain and Computer Intelligence, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
- 5NHC and CAMS Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
- 6Department of Physiology, Niigata University School of Medicine, Niigata, Japan
Abstract
To bridge the gap between neural geometry and oscillatory dynamics, we analyzed gamma-band oscillations in macaque inferior temporal cortex using large-scale electrocorticography. We identified an “oscillatory manifold”—a stable, low-dimensional geometric structure embedded within oscillatory waveforms—that encodes color information. Within this manifold, trajectories for different colors were segregated via color-specific amplitude modulations of a shared oscillatory carrier. While the absolute spatial separation of these trajectories rapidly decayed following an initial stimulus-locked transient, their scale-invariant topological shape was conserved. Although stimulus shape was decodable from gamma-band power, it lacked the stable geometric structure observed for color. This contrast confirms that the oscillatory manifold is a specific representational format rather than a generic byproduct of neural activation. Consequently, gamma oscillations provide a dynamic “geometric scaffold” safeguarding perceptual fidelity against energy fluctuations. This framework unifies representational geometry with oscillatory dynamics, offering a feature-specific perspective on how the cortex stabilizes sensory information.
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BibTeX
@article{li2026gamma,
title = {{Gamma oscillations provide a stable geometric scaffold for color representation in primate inferior temporal cortex}},
author = {Chengpeng Li and Isao Hasegawa and Hisashi Tanigawa},
journal = {Communications Biology},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
doi = {10.1038/s42003-026-10652-8},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-10652-8},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Gamma oscillations provide a stable geometric scaffold for color representation in primate inferior temporal cortex
AU - Chengpeng Li
AU - Isao Hasegawa
AU - Hisashi Tanigawa
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/11
JO - Communications Biology
DO - 10.1038/s42003-026-10652-8
UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-10652-8
AB - To bridge the gap between neural geometry and oscillatory dynamics, we analyzed gamma-band oscillations in macaque inferior temporal cortex using large-scale electrocorticography. We identified an “oscillatory manifold”—a stable, low-dimensional geometric structure embedded within oscillatory waveforms—that encodes color information. Within this manifold, trajectories for different colors were segregated via color-specific amplitude modulations of a shared oscillatory carrier. While the absolute spatial separation of these trajectories rapidly decayed following an initial stimulus-locked transient, their scale-invariant topological shape was conserved. Although stimulus shape was decodable from gamma-band power, it lacked the stable geometric structure observed for color. This contrast confirms that the oscillatory manifold is a specific representational format rather than a generic byproduct of neural activation. Consequently, gamma oscillations provide a dynamic “geometric scaffold” safeguarding perceptual fidelity against energy fluctuations. This framework unifies representational geometry with oscillatory dynamics, offering a feature-specific perspective on how the cortex stabilizes sensory information.
SN - 2399-3642
ER -