Transfer of messages from source (sender) to target (reader) is usually considered a unidirectional operation: the source sends the information to an ever-ready recipient network. Brain networks do not appear to work this way. Instead, the reader plays the initiating role by temporally biasing activity in the source networks and creating time windows within which the reader can most effectively receive information (Figure 10; Sirota et al., 2003; 2008). Each sensory system has co-evolved with such a reader-initiated transfer mechanism. Dedicated motor outputs, such as saccadic eye movements, licking, sniffing, whisking, touching, twitching of the inner ear muscles or other gating mechanisms assist their specific sensory systems by ‘resetting’ or synchronizing spiking activity in large parts of the corresponding sensory system and/or creating transient gains, which enhance the reader (sensory) system’s ability to process the inputs (Ahissar and Arieli, 2001; Bremmer et al., 2009; Desimone and Ungerleider, 1989; Guiterrez et al., 2010; Halpern, 1983; Henson 1965; Kepecs et al., 2006; Kleinfeld et al., 2006).
