The EEG spike: signal of information transmission?

Enhanced neuronal excitability or coherence, leading to a rapid-bursting mode of unit discharge or to synchronous polarization, underlies the electroencephalographic spike. The propensity for EEG spike activity to occur in relation to events that require absolute command of neural circuitry suggests that the EEG spike represents a mode of discharge of underlying neural elements which is employed for communication of imperative messages. Normal when confined to certain axial nuclei of the brain during sleep or during photic or sexual excitation, compensatory in response to deafferentation or hypoxia, this powerful transmission mode must have certain advantages to have persisted throughout evolutionary history.