Anticipated synchronization in human EEG data: unidirectional causality with negative phase-lag

TL;DR

This study demonstrates the presence of anticipated synchronization in human EEG data, revealing that phase differences can indicate causality reversal, which challenges traditional interpretations of brain connectivity.

Contribution

First verification of anticipated synchronization in human EEG signals, showing unidirectional influence with negative phase lag during cognitive tasks.

Findings

EEG signals exhibit anticipated synchronization with negative phase lag.

Both delayed and anticipated synchronization regimes are observed.

Diverse phase relations, including in-phase and anti-phase, are present in EEG data.

Abstract

Understanding the functional connectivity of the brain has become a major goal of neuroscience. In many situatons, the relative phase difference, together with coherence patterns, have been employed to infer the direction of the information flow. However, it has been recently shown in local field potential data from monkeys the existence of a synchronized regime in which unidirectionally coupled areas can present both positive and negative phase differences. During the counterintuitive regime, called anticipated synchronization (AS), the phase difference does not reflect the causality. Here we investigate coherence and causality at the alpha frequency band (10 Hz) between pairs of electroencephalogram (EEG) electrodes in humans during a GO/NO-GO task. We show that human EEG signals can exhibit anticipated synchronization, which is characterized by a unidirectional influence from an electrode A to an electrode B, but the electrode B leads the electrode A in time. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first verification of AS in EEG signals and in the human brain. The usual delayed synchronization (DS) regime is also present between many pairs. DS is characterized by a unidirectional influence from an electrode A to an electrode B and a positive phase difference between A and B which indicates that the electrode A leads the electrode B in time. Moreover, we show that EEG signals exhibit diversity in phase relations: the pairs of electrodes can present in-phase, anti-phase, or out-of-phase synchronization with a similar distribution of positive and negative phase differences.