Elsevier

NeuroImage

Volume 103, December 2014, Pages 444-453
NeuroImage

Intra-cortical propagation of EEG alpha oscillations

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.08.027Get rights and content

Highlights

  • EEG alpha oscillations propagate over the scalp

  • Controversy about which kind of axons mediates their propagation

  • We describe a method to extract traveling waves from EEG recordings

  • Perform simulations to argue that intra-cortical axons are involved

  • Our findings have consequences for alpha-based cognitive theories

Abstract

The most salient feature of spontaneous human brain activity as recorded with electroencephalography (EEG) are rhythmic fluctuations around 10 Hz. These alpha oscillations have been reported to propagate over the scalp with velocities in the range of 5–15 m/s. Since these velocities are in the range of action potential velocities through cortico-cortical axons, it has been hypothesized that the observed scalp waves reflect cortico-cortically mediated propagation of cortical oscillations. The reported scalp velocities however, appear to be inconsistent with those estimated from local field potential recordings in dogs, which are < 1 m/s and agree with the propagation velocity of action potentials in intra-cortical axons. In this study, we resolve these diverging findings using a combination of EEG data-analysis and biophysical modeling. In particular, we demonstrate that the observed scalp velocities can be accounted for by slow traveling oscillations, which provides support for the claim that spatial propagation of alpha oscillations is mediated by intra-cortical axons.

Introduction

Alpha oscillations can be recorded from mammalian neocortex, particularly during wakeful detachment from the environment. Although initially regarded as “idling rhythms”, recent observations of their ability to modulate sensory awareness and reaction times suggest a central role in perceptual and motor function (Dijk et al., 2008, Klimesch et al., 2007). In addition, recent experiments have provided evidence that alpha oscillations are intimately linked to early sensory-evoked potentials (Makeig et al., 2002, Mazaheri and Jensen, 2008, Nikulin and Brismar, 2006). Besides their involvement in perceptual processing, experiments in human and macaque have demonstrated their involvement in regulating attention, working memory processes, and provide selective inhibition of task-irrelevant networks (Jensen et al., 2002, Klimesch, 1999, Klimesch et al., 2007, Mo et al., 2011).

In contrast to the dynamics of localized alpha sources, which have been investigated in numerous studies, spatial propagation of alpha oscillations has received considerably less attention. Human EEG studies have shown however, that resting-state as well as stimulus-induced alpha oscillations travel over the scalp (Burkitt et al., 2000, Ito et al., 2005, Klimesch et al., 2007, Nunez et al., 2001) and that their wave properties correlate with reaction times (Fellinger et al., 2012, Patten et al., 2012), indicating their potential functional relevance. These observations however, pertain to scalp signals and the properties of the underlying waves on the cortical sheet are unclear at present. Because scalp velocities lie in the range 5–15 m/s, it has been suggested that alpha scalp waves are propagate through cortico-cortical axons, which have conduction velocities in this range (Kandel et al., 2000). The resulting long wavelengths, combined with predominant propagation along the medial axis have been proposed to endow alpha oscillations with suitable properties to mediate top-down and bottom-up interactions between occipital and frontal networks (Burkitt et al., 2000, Ito et al., 2005, Klimesch et al., 2007, Nunez et al., 2001, Patten et al., 2012).

The reported velocities obtained from scalp EEG recordings seem inconsistent with those obtained from invasive recordings, which are about an order of magnitude lower. Local field potential (LFP) recordings in dogs visual cortex lead to estimates of about 0.3 m/s (Lopes Da Silva et al., 1980). More recently, electrocorticographic (EcoG) recordings in human subjects have led to estimates of propagation velocities in the range 0.7–2.1 m/s (Bahramisharif et al., 2013). Intriguingly, the authors observed gamma bursts propagating with the same velocity and riding on the troughs of the propagating alpha oscillations. The slow propagation velocities obtained from invasive recordings are consistent with voltage-sensitive dye (VSD), optical imaging, and local field potential recordings of other kinds of neocortical activity, which lead to propagation velocities < 1 m/s suggesting mediation through intra-cortical instead of cortico-cortical axons (Ermentrout and Kleinfeld, 2001, Han et al., 2008, Wu et al., 2008, Zheng and Yao, 2012), Besides the inconsistency in reported traveling velocities between scalp EEG and invasive recordings, another difference is that in the latter, systematic propagation of single-cycle oscillations is reported, while the former report propagation of single-cycle oscillations only in a fraction of cycles (Ito et al., 2005, Patten et al., 2012).

In this study we resolve these issues by combining a method to extract wave-activity from scalp EEG recordings with current source density simulations. The proposed method shows that single-cycle alpha oscillations propagate over the scalp, consistent with the observations of VSD and LFP studies. Furthermore, the simulations show that intra-cortical propagation of alpha oscillations through cortical sulci or gyri can account for the observed scalp velocities. We further verify the intra-cortical hypothesis of alpha propagation by formulating and verifying a number of predictions on the behavior of alpha scalp waves. Importantly, the wavelengths implied by the intra-cortical hypothesis are estimated to be in the order of several centimeters, much smaller than predicted by the cortico-cortical hypothesis, provoking a re-examination of the notion of alpha-mediated long-range interactions.

Section snippets

Cortico-cortical versus intra-cortical propagation

Fig. 1A illustrates the cortico-cortical and intra-cortical hypothesis on alpha propagation. According to the cortico-cortical hypothesis, electric potential waves on the scalp reflect cortical waves with similar velocity (5–15 m/s) that are mediated through cortico-cortical axons, which are known to have conduction velocities in this range (Kandel et al., 2000). According to the intra-cortical hypothesis, advocated in this study, the traveling scalp waves result from relatively localized and

Propagation of single-cycle oscillations

To assess if single alpha-cycles propagate over the scalp, we computed the single-cycle waves and computed the instantaneous velocities and averaged these over the waves and subsequently over subjects. The resulting velocity distribution is shown in Fig. 5A. The average velocity is 2.26 ± 0.25 m/s. The narrow concentration around non-zero values demonstrates that single-cycle waves indeed propagate over the scalp. To assess if the wave-templates are representative for single-cycle waves, we

Discussion

In this study we have shown that scalp EEG traveling waves can be accounted for by cortical oscillations that propagate through neocortical tissue with velocities in the range of propagation velocities of spikes in intra-cortical axons. Using different reference electrodes in the proposed analysis method biases the extraction of wave-activity to different cortical regions and it is expected that MEG recordings, which are less affected by the spatial blurring of electromagnetic fields (

Acknowledgments

GD was supported by the ERC Advanced Grant: DYSTRUCTURE (no. 295129), by the Spanish Research Project SAF2010-16085 and by the CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010 Program CSD2007-00012, and the FP7-ICT BrainScales. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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