Spatial Directionality Found in Frontal-Parietal Attentional Networks

Abstract

Research in last few years on neurophysiology focused on several areas across the cortex during cognitive processing to determine the dominant direction of electrical activity. However, information about the frequency and direction of episodic synchronization related to higher cognitive functions remain unclear. Our aim was to determine whether neural oscillations carry perceptual information as spatial patterns across the cortex, which could be found in the scalp EEG of human subjects while being engaged in visual sensory stimulation. Magnitude squared coherence of neural activity during task states that “finger movement with Eyes Open (EO) or Eyes Wandering (EW)” among all electrode combinations has the smallest standard deviation and variations. Additionally, the highest coherence among the electrode pairs occurred between alpha (8-12 Hz) and beta (12-16 Hz) ranges. Our results indicate that alpha rhythms seem to be regulated during activities when an individual is focused on a given task. Beta activity, which has also been implicated in cognitive processing to neural oscillations, is seen in our work as a manner to integrate external stimuli to higher cognitive activation. We have found spatial network organization which served to classify the EEG epochs in time with respect to the stimuli class. Our findings suggest that cortical neural signaling utilizes alpha-beta phase coupling during cognitive processing states, where beta activity has been implicated in shifting cognitive states. Significance. Our approach has found frontoparietal attentional mechanisms in shifting brain states which could provide new insights into understanding the global cerebral dynamics of intentional activity and reflect how the brain allocates resources during tasking and cognitive processing states.

Associations of Alpha and Beta Interhemispheric EEG Coherences with Indices of Attentional Control and Academic Performance

“…Frontal beta coherence is shown to support control of the frontal eye fields [26], and the increases in Fp1-Fp2 and F3-F4 frontal beta coherences could, therefore, be indicative of increased oculomotor control in our subjects, an obvious skill enhancement that might be entrained by academic challenges requiring a lot of reading. Parietal beta activity at P3-P4 is shown to support attentional control and short-term memory functions [27]. The increase in P3-P4 beta coherence with eyes open which we observed is consistent with what would be predicted for an intense academic challenge requiring enhancement of attentional control and short-term memory functions.…”

A Pilot Investigation of Visual Pathways in Patients with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

“…We have found instances from mTBI that have caused a loss of alpha activity, which may implicate similar deficiencies in the attentional states found in the frontal-parietal networks. The alpha bandwidth has been associated with attentional states, specifically found in the frontal-parietal networks [ 7 , 13 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 ]. Alpha rhythms seem to be regulated during activities when an individual is focused on a given task [ 12 ].…”

“…VEPs measure the processing of the visual system, which features two major pathways: the parvocellular (P) pathway, originating in the midget retinal ganglion cells (RGCs); and the magnocellular (M) pathway, originating in the parasol RGCs [ 5 , 6 ]. These pathways are associated with specific functions, conveying the ‘‘what’’ (visual areas (V1)-(V3)-(V4)-inferior temporal cortex (IT)) and ‘‘where’’ ((V1)- > (V2)- middle temporal area (MT)-superior temporal sulcus (STS)) of visual information [ 7 , 8 ]. Finally, the ventral stream is fed by the PC cells, whereas the dorsal stream is fed by the MC cells [ 9 ].…”

Radio, Podcasts, and Music Streaming—An Electroencephalography and Physiological Analysis of Listeners’ Attitude, Attention, Memory, and Engagement

“…A large body of research has revealed the consistent nature by which attention can be measured using neuroimaging techniques [54][55][56][57], particularly within the visual domain. Specifically, a large portion of this research implies that decreases in, or the suppression of, alpha activity is positively correlated with the strength of attention towards a stimulus [58][59][60].…”