Do cortical co-ripples bind lines, letters, words, meanings, strategy and action in reading? Summary : Widespread lexical, semantic, executive and response processing areas co-ripple and phase-lock when detecting target words.

High-frequency phase-locked oscillations have been hypothesized to facilitate integration (‘binding’) of information encoded across widespread cortical areas. Ripples (∼100ms long ∼90Hz oscillations) co-occur broadly in multiple states and locations, but have only been associated with memory replay. We tested whether cortico-cortical co-ripples subserve a general role in binding by recording intracranial EEG during reading. Co-rippling strongly increased to words versus consonant-strings in visual, wordform and semantic areas when letters are binding into words, and words to meaning. Similarly, co-ripples increased prior to correct responses between executive, response, wordform and semantic sites when word meanings are binding to instructions and response. These effects dissociated from non-oscillatory activation and memory reinstatement. Co-ripples were phase-locked at zero-lag, even at long distances, supporting a general role in cognitive binding.