Cortical oscillations reflect opponent ensemble dynamics through coordinated multifrequency activity

Abstract

Neural oscillations are widely used as proxies for neuronal activity, where power in individual frequency bands is commonly interpreted as functionally indexing neural circuit engagement. However, power in individual frequency bands shows heterogeneous and sometimes opposing relationships with neuronal activity across regions and behavioral contexts, challenging the assumption of a stable frequency-to-circuit mapping. Here we show that glutamatergic population activity in rat medial prefrontal cortex is not stably linked with power in isolated frequency bands, but rather with dynamically recurring multi-frequency amplitude co-fluctuations. These multi-frequency patterns, termed spectral motifs, occurred in opponent pairs with nearly identical frequency composition but inverted relationships to population calcium activity. This opponent motif structure, observed across cortical regions and species, provides a key component for understanding how oscillations are linked to neuronal activity. We found that shifts in motif opponency balance explained changes in glutamatergic activity that occur during brain-computer interface learning better than models based on frequency band power alone. Furthermore, opponent motifs map selectively onto opponent cell ensembles and enable bidirectional mapping between local field potentials and ensemble activity. These findings identify multi-frequency opponent motifs as a conserved organizational principle linking oscillatory dynamics to population-level circuit states and challenge the notion that individual frequency bands can serve as interpretable functional units mapping onto neural circuit activity.