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. 2021 Sep;34(5):608-617.
doi: 10.1007/s10548-021-00854-0. Epub 2021 Jun 15.

Topography of Movement-Related Delta and Theta Brain Oscillations

János Körmendi  1   2   3 , Eszter Ferentzi  4 , Béla Weiss  5 , Zoltán Nagy  6   7   8
Affiliations

Topography of Movement-Related Delta and Theta Brain Oscillations

János Körmendi et al. Brain Topogr. 2021 Sep.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyse the high density EEG during movement execution guided by visual attention to reveal the detailed topographic distributions of delta and theta oscillations. Twenty right-handed young subjects performed a finger tapping task, paced by a continuously transited repeating visual stimuli. Baseline corrected power of scalp current density transformed EEG was statistically assessed with cluster-based permutation testing. Delta and theta activities revealed differences in their spatial properties at the time of finger tapping execution. Theta synchronization showed a contralateral double activation in the parietal and fronto-central regions, while delta activity appeared in the central contralateral channels. Differences in the spatiotemporal topography between delta and theta activity in the course of movement execution were identified on high density EEG.

Keywords: Delta oscillations; EEG power dynamics; Event-related synchronization; Finger tapping; Scalp current density; Theta oscillations.

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Conflict of interest statement

Authors have no conflicts of interests to declare.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Grand average scalp current density (SCD) activity of the EEG related to right-hand (dominant hand) finger tapping. Panel A shows the time course of SCD activity for channel clusters that cover four topographic regions: left (contralateral) and right (ipsilateral) central as well as frontal and parietal regions. EEG activity was averaged across the electrodes that belong to particular channel clusters (see the figure inset). Zero on the horizontal axis denotes the onset of keypresses. Panel B shows the topography of SCD transformed EEG activity before, during and after the onset of finger tapping at specific time points of particular interest. EEG was averaged for ± 5 ms around the time points indicated above the maps
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Spatio-temporal distribution of spectral perturbations (ERSP) related to right (dominant) hand finger tapping. ERSP was compared to the baseline activity from −3500 to 3000 ms with cluster-based statistical analysis using the 0.001 cluster alpha (CA1) value. Topographic maps stand for ERSP values averaged in 300 ms long time intervals (± 150 ms around the time points indicated above the maps) and specific frequency bands (SO – slow oscillations: 0.5–1 Hz, delta: 1–4 Hz, theta: 4–8 Hz, alpha: 8–15 Hz, beta: 15–30 Hz, gamma: 30–70 Hz). Only samples belonging to significant (p < 0.05) clusters were taken into consideration (red: positive, indicating significant event-related synchronization (ERS), blue: negative, indicating significant event-related desynchronization (ERD) and only electrodes belonging to these clusters were marked with black dots. Based on a priori information, the statistical evaluation was carried out separately for frequency ranges between 0.5 and 8 Hz and between 8 and 70 Hz (denoted by the black horizontal line). Furthermore, the frequency range from 8 to 70 Hz was divided into two separate time intervals (from -2700 to 450 ms and from 450 to 1200 ms, as marked by the black vertical line)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Spatio-temporal distribution of spectral perturbations (ERSP) related to right (dominant) hand finger tapping. ERSP was compared to the baseline activity from −3500 to 3000 ms with cluster-based statistical analysis using the 0.05 cluster alpha (CA1) value. Topographic maps stand for ERSP values averaged in 300 ms long time intervals (± 150 ms around the time points indicated above the maps) and specific frequency bands (SO – slow oscillations: 0.5–1 Hz, delta: 1–4 Hz, theta: 4–8 Hz, alpha: 8–15 Hz, beta: 15–30 Hz, gamma: 30–70 Hz). Only samples belonging to significant (p < 0.05) clusters were taken into consideration (red: positive, indicating significant event-related synchronization (ERS), blue: negative, indicating significant event-related desynchronization (ERD) and only electrodes belonging to these clusters were marked with black dots. Based on a priori information, the statistical evaluation was carried out separately for frequency ranges between 0.5 and 8 Hz and between 8 and 70 Hz (denoted by the black horizontal line). Furthermore, the frequency range from 8 to 70 Hz was divided into two separate time intervals (from -2700 to 450 ms and from 450 to 1200 ms, as marked by the black vertical line)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Comparison of the normalized finger tapping-related spectral perturbations (nERSP) in delta (1–4 Hz) and theta (4–8 Hz) frequency bands around the onset key presses (B and C) and the spectral perturbations (ERSP) in delta (A) and theta (D) frequency bands. The normalizations were achieved separately in all frequency bins to equalize the gross differences between the ERSP magnitudes and to focus only on the topographic differences. The nERSP was averaged in the delta and theta frequencies and was compared between these two range with cluster-based permutation testing using the both 0.05 (B) and 0.001 (C) cluster alpha value (between −250 and 250 ms). The upper (A) and lower (D) rows show the topographic distributions of the ERSPs (before the normalizations) in these two frequency ranges. Topographic maps stand for averaged nERSP or ERSP values in 100 ms long time intervals (± 50 ms around the key press time point) and the two frequency bands (delta: 1–4 Hz, theta: 4–8 Hz). Only samples belonging to significant clusters were taken into consideration with colourscale (red: positive, blue: negative) and only in these clusters were marked the symbolized electrodes with black dots. The colour scale shows the grand average values of the ERSP (in A and D) or the differences in the nERSP (in B and C) in the clusters (in the corresponding time and frequency interval), and all the area outside the clusters is painted to white. In the delta and theta comparison pictures (B and C) the positive (red) clusters represent the significantly higher nERSP values in the theta range while the negative (blue) clusters refer to the areas where the delta nERSP is higher significantly
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Differences in the normalized finger tapping-related spectral perturbations (nERSP) in delta (1–4 Hz) and theta (4–8 Hz) frequency bands around the onset key presses in three separated channel groups (left frontocentral: C22-25/left central: D14, D18-21/left parietal: A6-7, D29). The boxplots with δ and θ symbol represent the distribution of the average nERSP values in the delta and theta range (respectively) in the given channel groups. The boxplots with θ – δ symbols shows the spreads of differences between the averaged theta and delta nERSP values. The normalizations were achieved separately in all frequency bins to equalize the gross differences between the ERSP magnitudes and to focus only on the topographic differences
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