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A study published in April 2026 reported varied traveling patterns of neural activity in people performing memory tasks, including waves that spread outward, converge and spiral. The researchers found that different tasks were associated with distinct patterns, but the results do not establish that the waves cause the brain to switch between functions.
A team of neuroscientists recorded several kinds of traveling waves in the human cortex while participants performed memory tasks, reporting patterns that spread from a source, converge on a point or form spirals. The study, published in April 2026 in Nature Communications, found that different tasks were associated with distinct wave patterns, adding evidence that large-scale electrical activity may relate to how the brain processes information.
The researchers, including Joshua Jacobs and Anup Das of the University of Chicago, used intracranial electrodes to record activity across brain regions. The participants completed two memory exercises: recalling words shown on a screen and navigating a virtual environment to remember where objects were located. The team reported more varied patterns than simple waves moving in one direction across the cortex.
Among the patterns described were source waves, which spread outward from a location, and sink waves, which converge on one. The researchers also observed spiral-like waves. The report describes these as new classes of waves observed in awake humans, but the supplied account does not provide sample size, effect sizes or detailed statistical results.
The findings build on earlier work by Jacobs and collaborators. A 2024 study in Nature Human Behavior described waves moving in opposite directions across the cortex during memory tasks. The newer study broadens that picture by associating more complex spatial patterns with different behavioral tasks. The reported association does not by itself show that a particular wave pattern causes a specific mental operation.
How Wave Patterns May Organize Thought
Neural connections can change over days or months, while behavior may need to adapt in seconds. Researchers are investigating whether large-scale traveling waves help coordinate activity quickly, allowing brain regions to work together as demands shift. The new observations make the case that waves may carry information about how the cortex is operating, rather than being only a general sign of neural activity.
That possibility matters for understanding memory and information flow in the brain. If wave patterns reliably track different tasks, they could offer researchers a way to study how activity moves between regions during changing mental demands. The findings are an early step: evidence that patterns differ across tasks is not proof that the waves themselves reorganize the brain or produce the behavior.
The work also shows the value of recordings with high spatial and temporal detail. Intracranial electrodes can capture activity that scalp-based EEG cannot resolve as precisely, though the method is available only in specific clinical circumstances and with patient permission. The observations therefore provide a detailed view, but not a broad survey of the general population.
intracranial electrode recording equipment
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From Scalp EEG to Intracranial Recordings
Scientists have measured brain electrical activity with electroencephalography (EEG) since the 1920s. EEG electrodes sit on the scalp and detect changes in electrical rhythms, often discussed as alpha, beta, gamma and theta activity. These rhythms vary with states such as attention, memory and sleep, but recordings from outside the skull limit how finely researchers can map activity across the brain.
Jacobs’ research uses electrodes implanted in people with severe epilepsy when clinicians need to identify where seizures begin. With participants’ permission, researchers can use the electrodes to record brain activity during tasks. The approach gives a closer look at activity across space and time, but the participants are not a representative sample of everyone, and the clinical setting shapes what can be studied.
In the 2024 memory study, collaborators described waves traveling front to back or back to front across the cortex. Jacobs said the direction could reflect the movement of information, while collaborator Uma Mohan suggested the pattern might help the brain rapidly shift between memory encoding and recall. Those interpretations remain explanations proposed by the researchers, not established causal mechanisms.
“The work coming out is moving this from ‘Are they relevant?’ to ‘This is a major motif of how the cortex processes information,’”
— Earl K. Miller, cognitive neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
What the Recordings Cannot Yet Show
The study reports an association between task type and wave pattern; the material available here does not establish that one causes the other. It remains unclear whether the waves actively coordinate brain regions, arise as a consequence of neurons firing, or reflect another process. Jacobs’ analogy suggests that even a byproduct may reveal organization, but it does not settle the mechanism.
The supplied report also does not state the number of participants, how consistently each pattern appeared, or whether the findings generalize beyond the people studied. Intracranial recordings are obtained in a specific clinical context, so results cannot automatically be applied to people without epilepsy. Further work is needed to test how robust the patterns are and how they relate to particular cognitive operations.
Testing the Waves Across Tasks
The immediate research challenge is to determine whether the reported patterns recur across more participants and tasks, and whether they predict changes in brain function. Follow-up studies could test whether the same wave forms appear during other kinds of memory, attention or behavior, while examining how activity in different regions changes over time.
Researchers would also need evidence that distinguishes cause from correlation. The present report does not identify a clinical application or a confirmed next milestone. For now, the study adds detailed observations to a developing line of research into traveling waves; their role in organizing thought remains an open question.
Key Questions
What did the 2026 study find?
Researchers reported source, sink and spiral-like traveling waves in the cortex while participants completed verbal and spatial memory tasks. Different tasks were associated with distinct patterns.
Do the findings prove that brain waves control memory?
No. The reported results link wave patterns with tasks, but do not establish that the waves cause memory processes or control them.
How were the waves recorded?
The team used intracranial electrodes in people with severe epilepsy who had electrodes placed for clinical evaluation and gave permission for research recordings.
How does this differ from EEG?
EEG measures electrical activity using electrodes on the scalp. Intracranial recordings measure activity from electrodes inside the skull and can provide more detailed spatial and temporal data, but are limited to particular clinical settings.
What remains unknown?
Researchers still need to establish how reliably the patterns appear, whether they occur in broader populations, and whether they actively help organize brain activity or are a byproduct of it.
Source: hn
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