A method for event-related phase/amplitude coupling

Authors:

  • Bradley Voytek

  • Mark D'Esposito

  • Nathan E. Crone

  • Robert T. Knight

Date: 2012

DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.09.023

PubMed: 22986076

View PDF

Abstract:

Phase/amplitude coupling (PAC) is emerging as an important electrophysiological measure of local and long-distance neuronal communication. Current techniques for calculating PAC provide a numerical index that represents an average value across an arbitrarily long time period. This requires researchers to rely on block design experiments and temporal concatenation at the cost of the sub-second temporal resolution afforded by electrophysiological recordings. Here we present a method for calculating event-related phase/amplitude coupling (ERPAC) designed to capture the temporal evolution of task-related changes in PAC across events or between distant brain regions that is applicable to human or animal electromagnetic recording.