Our current understanding of brain rhythms is based on quantifying their instantaneous or time-averaged characteristics. What remains unexplored, is the actual structure of the waves–their shapes and patterns over finite timescales. The data published here are used to study brain wave patterning in different physiological contexts using two independent approaches: the first is based on quantifying stochasticity relative to the underlying mean behavior, and the second assesses "orderliness'' of the waves' features. The corresponding measures capture the waves' characteristics and abnormal behaviors, such as atypical periodicity or excessive clustering, and demonstrate coupling between the patterns' dynamics and the animal's location, speed, and acceleration. Specifically, patterns of θ, γ, and ripple waves recorded in mice hippocampi and observed speed-modulated changes of the wave's cadence, an antiphase relationship between orderliness and acceleration, as well as spatial selectiveness of patterns, are derived from the data. The results offer a complementary–mesoscale–perspective on brain wave structure, dynamics, and functionality.

The data were collected by tetrode recording in freely moving mice. A hyperdrive containing eight tetrodes was implanted during a surgery onto the skull of each mouse. Tetrodes were targeted at CA1 pyramidal cell layer of HP. The animal was trained in a familiar room to run back and forth on about a ∼ 2 m long rectangular track for a food reward. DigitalLynx acquisition system (Neuralynx, Bozeman, MU) was used for recording after the animal achieved a performance of at least 10 laps on the track. The daily recording procedure consisted of two sessions on the track, lasting about 15 min each, followed by one to two 15-min break in the sleeping box. The recording was repeated for 3–10 days. Local field potential (LFPs) data were sampled at 2 kHz rate. Two color diodes (red, green) were mounted over the animal’s head to track its positions, sampled at 33 Hz with a resolution of approximately 0.2 cm. Spikes were manually sorted using xclust2.