The relationship between negative BOLD responses and ERS and ERD of alpha/beta oscillations in visual and motor cortex

Wilson, Ross; Mullinger, Karen J.; Francis, Susan T.; Mayhew, Stephen D.

Abstract

Previous work has investigated the electrophysiological origins of the intra-modal (within the stimulated sensory cortex) negative BOLD fMRI response (NBR, decrease from baseline) but little attention has been paid to the origin of cross-modal NBRs, those in a different sensory cortex. In the current study we use simultaneous EEG-fMRI recordings to assess the neural correlates of both intra- and cross-modal responses to left-hemifield visual stimuli and right-hand motor tasks, and evaluate the balance of activation and deactivation between the visual and motor systems. Within- and between-subject covariations of EEG and fMRI responses to both tasks are assessed to determine how patterns of event-related desynchronization/synchronisation (ERD/ERS) of alpha/beta frequency oscillations relate to the NBR in the two sensory cortices.

We show that both visual and motor tasks induce intra-modal NBR and cross-modal NBR (e.g. visual stimuli evoked NBRs in both visual and motor cortices). In the EEG data, bilateral intra-modal alpha/beta ERD were consistently observed to both tasks, whilst the cross-modal EEG response varied across subjects between alpha/beta ERD and ERS. Both the mean cross-modal EEG and fMRI response amplitudes showed a small increase in magnitude with increasing task intensity.

In response to the visual stimuli, subjects displaying cross-modal ERS of motor beta power displayed a significantly larger magnitude of cross-modal NBR in motor cortex. However, in contrast to the motor stimuli, larger cross-modal ERD of visual alpha power was associated with larger cross-modal visual NBR. Single-trial correlation analysis provided further evidence of relationship between EEG signals and the NBR, motor cortex beta responses to motor tasks were significantly negatively correlated with cross-modal visual cortex NBR amplitude, and positively correlated with intra-modal motor cortex PBR.

This study provides a new body of evidence that the coupling between BOLD and low-frequency (alpha/beta) sensory cortex EEG responses extends to cross-modal NBR.

Citation

Wilson, R., Mullinger, K. J., Francis, S. T., & Mayhew, S. D. (2019). The relationship between negative BOLD responses and ERS and ERD of alpha/beta oscillations in visual and motor cortex. NeuroImage, 199, 635-650. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.06.009

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 3, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jun 9, 2019
• Publication Date: Jun 9, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jun 19, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 10, 2020
• Journal: NeuroImage
• Print ISSN: 1053-8119
• Electronic ISSN: 1095-9572
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 199
• Pages: 635-650
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.06.009
• Keywords: Cognitive Neuroscience; Neurology
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2209023
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S105381191930494X
• Contract Date: Jun 19, 2019