A synopsis involving observations on the coinicidence of Local Field Potentials (LFP's) or "Coherence Potentials" was recently released by NIMH and Duke University.

The synopsis states:

"NIMH and Duke University pinpointed LFPs in the cortex that surpassed a minimal size threshold, and then searched the rest of the cortex to see what was occurring at the same time.  In each case, they found other answering LFPs across the brain that mimicked each other with high precision: there was no degradation or loss of power (amplitude) in the signal.  Unlike what is observed after dropping a stone in a pond—with wavelets getting smaller farther from the stone—the intensity of the LFPs was the same across the brain."

There are no conclusions as to the significance of the study but the authors have included:

"...the rapid dispersion of such a signal mimics the spread of ideas and behaviors in social networks; a sufficiently provocative idea can spread very swiftly through a population."

While the authors note may or may not be premature, the possibility of such 'neuromemes' taking place are only supported by the reported findings of isolated occurrences as the report states:

Coherence potentials were present in cells in culture as well as awake monkeys, a robust demonstration that they occur in the functioning cortex.  Future studies will be aimed at monitoring coherence potentials in the context of behavioral function with the ultimate aim of making a connection between specific coherence potentials and behaviors.

According to the synopsis, it seems the study is in its infancy as questions still remain regarding the relationship between the function of these Coherence Potentials and the corpus collosum- whether these LFP's are undoubtedly symmetrical and how they function as multiple events within the parameters of the external stimulus.

The social/behavioral implications of the reported findings are just to early to confirm much less the actual relationship between Coherence Potentials and thought... especially coming from the subjects of petri-dishes and monkeys.

Ofcourse, the fields of Psychology and Neuroscience have had long standing ethical issues regarding experimentation on Human Beings but the noninvasive and mostly unharmful techniques used in Diagnostic Imaging allow for the prospect of Human Study... with permission of-course.