Despite a recent tangible re-emergence of interest in the significance and mechanisms of α rhythms (Schürmann et al. 2000; Makeig et al. 2002; VanRullen and Koch 2003; Hughes et al. 2004; Hughes and Crunelli 2005; Mazaheri and Jensen 2006; VanRullen et al. 2006; Palva and Palva 2007; Becker et al. 2008), research on brain oscillations in the last 10–20 years has mainly focused on fast oscillations in the β/γ (18–35/30–70 Hz) band (Gray et al. 1989; Gray and Singer 1989; Whittington et al. 1995; Başar-Eroglu et al. 1996; Roelfsema et al. 1997; Tallon-Baudry et al. 1996, 1997; Buhl et al. 1998; Fisahn et al. 1998; Csicsvari et al. 2003; Cunningham et al. 2003, 2004; Hajos et al. 2004; Mann et al. 2005; Traub et al. 2005; Bartos et al. 2007; Fries et al. 2007; Jensen et al. 2007). Initial interest in these oscillations was largely motivated by the finding that following an appropriate visual stimulus, local field potential (LFP) recordings in the cat primary visual cortex (i.e. V1) can exhibit robust oscillations at around 40 Hz (i.e. in the γ
