DELTA AND THETA: A TIME-FREQUENCY FRAMEWORK FOR MEASURING ERPS

Abstract

Time-frequency methodologies, which allow for the examination of spatially and temporally overlapping subprocesses, have shown that delta and theta can be used to explain the majority of variance in many traditional ERP components. Furthermore, prior work suggests that traditional ERPs likely contain separable activity associated with the salience and central executive networks, which indexed by theta amplitude and theta ICPS, respectively. The present study sought to validate a core set of measures in the theta and delta bands (amplitude, ICPS and ITPS measures) using a novelty oddball task, which allowed us to assess the separability of SN and CEN activity indexed by medial-frontal theta. Our results indicated that time-frequency amplitude, ICPS and ITPS each represent separable processes, such that delta amplitude indexes task-based elaborative processes, theta indexes relevant SN-related information, and ICPS indexes activity associated with the CEN; therefore, all can be used to more fully characterize ERP data.