The Wave-Coded Brain: Transforming Spike Patterns Through Space-Time Dynamics

We present a biologically inspired computational model— Waves as Space-Time (WST)—in which subliminal traveling waves of membrane potential function as a core mechanism for encoding and transforming spike patterns across space and time. The WST model introduces a complementary coding dimension by enriching purely temporal or purely spatial input patterns through wave-mediated dynamics. Within a neural layer exhibiting subthreshold oscillatory and traveling activity, input patterns are converted into precisely timed and spatially localized spikes, effectively binding temporal and spatial information. Temporal input patterns acquire spatial signatures that support exact spike-train recall, while spatial patterns are transformed into temporal sequences to facilitate efficient propagation. This bidirectional conversion between spatial and temporal codes enables a flexible representational framework. By tuning wave parameters—such as frequency, amplitude, and propagation velocity—the model accounts for a range of neuronal phenomena, including time warping, spatial warping, spike-pattern mirroring, and working memory maintenance. WST thus proposes subthreshold traveling waves as a plausible neural substrate for dynamic spatiotemporal coding in complex cognitive processes.