Abstract
Visual perception appears largely stable in time. However, psychophysical studies have revealed that low frequency (0.5 – 7 Hz) oscillatory dynamics can modulate perception and have been linked to various cognitive states and functions. Neither the contribution of waves around 5 Hz (theta or alpha-like) to cortical activity nor their impact during aberrant brain states have been resolved at high spatiotemporal scales. Here, using cortex-wide population voltage imaging in awake mice, we found that bouts of 5-Hz oscillations in the visual cortex are accompanied by similar oscillations in the retrosplenial cortex, occurring both spontaneously and evoked by visual stimulation. Injection of psychotropic 5-HT2AR agonist induced a significant increase in spontaneous 5-Hz oscillations, and also increased the power, occurrence probability and temporal persistence of visually evoked 5-Hz oscillations. This modulation of 5-Hz oscillations in both cortical areas indicates a strengthening of top-down control of perception, supporting an underlying mechanism of perceptual filling and visual hallucinations.
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Data availability
The data supporting the findings of this study and custom MATLAB code used for analysis are available within the main text, the Supplementary Information file, the Supplementary Data, or from the corresponding authors upon request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Stefan Dobers and Henning Knoop and the RUB mechanical shop for technical support. This work was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grants: Project ID 122679504 - SFB 874, D.J.; JA 945/5-1, D.J.; “MoNN&Di”, Project number 492434978 - GRK 2862/1, Subproject 10, D.J.; BMBF, ERA-Net Neuron “Horizon 2020”, 01EW2104B, D.J.; US National Institutes of Health BRAIN Initiative Grant (5U01NS099573), T.K.; Lee Kuan Yew Postdoctoral Fellowship administered by Nanyang Technological University Singapore (022506-00001), C.S.; Open Fund Young Individual Research Grant (MOH-001720) administered by the Singapore Ministry of Health’s National Medical Research Council, C.S.
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These authors contributed equally: Zohre Azimi, Robert Staadt and Callum M. White. These authors jointly supervised this work: Dirk Jancke and Thomas Knöpfel. Conceptualization: T.K. and D.J. Data curation: C.M.W. and D.J. Formal analysis: C.M.W. and D.J. Data acquisition: Z.A. and R.S. Data visualization: C.M.W. and D.J. Software: C.M.W., T.K. and R.S. Supervision: T.K. and D.J. Funding acquisition and resources: C.S. T.K. and D.J. Writing—original draft: C.M.W., C.S., T.K. and D.J.
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White, C.M., Azimi, Z., Staadt, R. et al. Psychedelic 5-HT2A agonist increases spontaneous and evoked 5-Hz oscillations in visual and retrosplenial cortex. Commun Biol (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-09492-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-09492-9
