Journal
ELIFE
Volume 10, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
eLIFE SCIENCES PUBL LTD
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.70068
Keywords
human; electrophysiology; EEG; Human
Categories
Funding
- Whitehall Foundation [2017-12-73]
- National Science Foundation [BCS-1736028]
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences [R01GM134363-01]
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The study found that the spectral exponent of non-invasive EEG recording is sensitive to changes in E:I balance and can also track stimulus spectral exponents in auditory and visual sensory cortices. The degree of selective stimulus-brain coupling in spectral exponents predicted behavioral performance.
A hallmark of electrophysiological brain activity is its 1/f-like spectrum - power decreases with increasing frequency. The steepness of this 'roll-off' is approximated by the spectral exponent, which in invasively recorded neural populations reflects the balance of excitatory to inhibitory neural activity (E:I balance). Here, we first establish that the spectral exponent of non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG) recordings is highly sensitive to general (i.e., anaesthesia-driven) changes in E:I balance. Building on the EEG spectral exponent as a viable marker of E:I, we then demonstrate its sensitivity to the focus of selective attention in an EEG experiment during which participants detected targets in simultaneous audio-visual noise. In addition to these endogenous changes in E:I balance, EEG spectral exponents over auditory and visual sensory cortices also tracked auditory and visual stimulus spectral exponents, respectively. Individuals' degree of this selective stimulus-brain coupling in spectral exponents predicted behavioural performance. Our results highlight the rich information contained in 1/f-like neural activity, providing a window into diverse neural processes previously thought to be inaccessible in non-invasive human recordings.
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