Brain Activity Patterns Locked by Stimuli:

A Comparison of Event-Related Potential and EEG Microstates

Abstract

Recently, EEG microstates (EEGms), which are the spatial representations of the whole brain state at a moment have been focused. Although many studies have examined the function of EEGms, it is still mixed what function each pattern has. In this study, we examined EEGms related to the sensory and cognitive process during oddball tasks and tried to organize the relationship between EEGms and conventional views such as ERP. Twenty participants' EEGs were averaged across trials and participants, and EEGms analysis revealed the task positive-negative EEGms (class C, D) predominated at specific latencies during the task. Moreover, it was suggested the topography between tasks with different stimulus modalities significantly differed. Since ERP and EEGms are complementary in that ERP deal with time-series data in the temporal direction and EEGms deal with the whole information at a certain moment in the electrode direction, it may be useful to use both indices together.