Evidence for modulation of EEG microstate sequence by vigilance level
Marina Krylova,
Sarah Alizadeh,
Igor Izyurov,
Vanessa Teckentrup,
Catie Chang,
Johan van der Meer,
Michael Erb,
Nils Kroemer,
Thomas Koenig,
Martin Walter,
Hamidreza Jamalabadi
Affiliations
Marina Krylova
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Division for Translational Psychiatry, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Philosophenweg 3, 07743 Jena, Germany
Sarah Alizadeh
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Division for Translational Psychiatry, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
Igor Izyurov
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Philosophenweg 3, 07743 Jena, Germany; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Division for Translational Psychiatry, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
Vanessa Teckentrup
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Division for Translational Psychiatry, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
Catie Chang
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA
Johan van der Meer
QIMR Berghofer Medial Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia
Michael Erb
Division of Biomedical Magnetic Resonance, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
Nils Kroemer
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Division for Translational Psychiatry, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
Thomas Koenig
Translational Research Center, University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Switzerland
Martin Walter
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Philosophenweg 3, 07743 Jena, Germany; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Division for Translational Psychiatry, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany; Clinical Affective Neuroimaging Laboratory, Magdeburg, Germany; Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany; Max Planck Institute for biological cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany; Corresponding author at: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Philosophenweg 3, 07743 Jena, Germany.
Hamidreza Jamalabadi
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Division for Translational Psychiatry, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany; Corresponding author.
The momentary global functional state of the brain is reflected in its electric field configuration and cluster analytical approaches have consistently shown four configurations, referred to as EEG microstate classes A to D. Changes in microstate parameters are associated with a number of neuropsychiatric disorders, task performance, and mental state establishing their relevance for cognition. However, the common practice to use eye-closed resting state data to assess the temporal dynamics of microstate parameters might induce systematic confounds related to vigilance levels. Here, we studied the dynamics of microstate parameters in two independent data sets and showed that the parameters of microstates are strongly associated with vigilance level assessed both by EEG power analysis and fMRI global signal. We found that the duration and contribution of microstate class C, as well as transition probabilities towards microstate class C were positively associated with vigilance, whereas the sign was reversed for microstate classes A and B. Furthermore, in looking for the origins of the correspondence between microstates and vigilance level, we found Granger-causal effects of vigilance levels on microstate sequence parameters. Collectively, our findings suggest that duration and occurrence of microstates have a different origin and possibly reflect different physiological processes. Finally, our findings indicate the need for taking vigilance levels into consideration in resting-sate EEG investigations.
