Recent studies have emphasized the functional role of neuronal activity underlying oscillatory local field potential (LFP) signals during visual processing in natural conditions. While functionally relevant components in multiple frequency bands have been reported, little is known about whether and how these components interact with each other across the dominant frequency bands. We examined this phenomenon in LFP signals obtained from the primary visual cortex of monkeys performing voluntary saccadic eye movements (EMs) on still images of natural-scenes. We identified saccade-related changes in respect to power and phase in four dominant frequency bands: delta-theta (2–4 Hz), alpha-beta (10–13 Hz), low-gamma (20–40 Hz), and high-gamma (>100 Hz). The phase of the delta-theta band component is found to be entrained to the rhythm of the repetitive saccades, while an increment in the power of the alpha-beta and low-gamma bands were locked to the onset of saccades. The degree of the power modulation in these frequency bands is positively correlated with the degree of the phase-locking of the delta-theta oscillations to EMs. These results suggest the presence of cross-frequency interactions in the form of phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) between slow (delta-theta) and faster (alpha-beta and low gamma) oscillations. As shown previously, spikes evoked by visual fixations during free viewing are phase-locked to the fast oscillations. Thus, signals of different types and at different temporal scales are nested to each other during natural viewing. Such cross-frequency interaction may provide a general mechanism to coordinate sensory processing on a fast time scale and motor behavior on a slower time scale during active sensing.

During natural vision, primates perform frequent saccadic eye movements, allowing only a narrow time window for processing the visual information at each location. Individual neurons may contribute only with a few spikes to the visual processing during each fixation, suggesting precise spike timing as a relevant mechanism for information processing. We recently found in V1 of monkeys freely viewing natural images, that fixation-related spike synchronization occurs at the early phase of the rate response after fixation-onset, suggesting a specific role of the first response spikes in V1. Here, we show that there are strong local field potential (LFP) modulations locked to the onset of saccades, which continue into the successive fixation periods. Visually induced spikes, in particular the first spikes after the onset of a fixation, are locked to a specific epoch of the LFP modulation. We suggest that the modulation of neural excitability, which is reflected by the saccade-related LFP changes, serves as a corollary signal enabling precise timing of spikes in V1 and thereby providing a mechanism for spike synchronization.