Abstract The ongoing neurodevelopmental process of active inference proceeds through structured resonance between excitatory and inhibitory population waves in cerebral cortex, regulated by subcortical controls and constrained by cortical geometry. Within active inference, deep-layer excitatory traveling waves express limbifugal predictive proposals, while superficial inhibitory networks and thalamo-cortical gates support the oscillatory phase perturbations of limbipetal precision control and error-correction. The representation of information in the cortex is provided by phase alignment of pyramidal-interneuron network gamma (PING) oscillations, organized by layer 2/3 and distributed by patch networks across the surface of each cortical region. The differentiation among PINGs, and thus the differentiation of cognitive representations, is achieved by limbipetal inhibitory control, whereas the integration of representations across PINGs is achieved by limbifugal excitatory control. When low-frequency excitatory waves (layer 5/6 theta) enter stable n:m phase-phase coupling with higher-frequency inhibitory rhythms (layer 2/3 gamma) across laminae, a Resonant Oscillatory Coherence (ROC) persists long enough to create a local NMDA-mediated synaptic facilitation (early long-term potentiation) that biases the probability that similar oscillatory dynamics will recur. These facilitations are the residuals of active inference that form the candidate traces for synaptic memory.
Tucker et al. (2026) studied this question.