Spontaneous EEG theta/beta ratio and delta–beta coupling in relation to attentional network functioning and self-reported attentional control

Abstract

Relationships between electroencephalographic (EEG) slow-and fast-wave frequency bands are considered to be of interest in the study of dispositional affective traits, emotion regulation, and attentional phenomena. However, to date, no previous studies had explored whether both state performance-based and self-reported attentional control (AC) measures potentially relate to different patterns of spontaneous EEG measures, in the absence of emotional stimuli. In the present study, individual differences in spontaneous EEG theta/beta ratio and delta-beta coupling at frontal and parietal sites were explored in a sample of 110 healthy volunteers as potential correlates of individual differences in performancebased attentional network functioning, as measured through the Attentional Network Test for Interactions (ANT-I) and self-reported AC. We found that stronger delta-beta coupling at parietal sites was associated with higher self-reported AC. However, no significant associations were found between executive control network functioning and the EEG ratio or coupling measures. Furthermore, a lower spontaneous frontoparietal theta/beta ratio was found to be associated with better orienting network functioning. These results are discussed with a focus on the potential utility of spontaneous EEG measures in several cortical regions for capturing trait-like individual differences in temperament-related factors.Keywords Spontaneous EEG . Theta/beta ratio . Delta-beta coupling . Attentional network functioning . Attentional control Relationships between spontaneous electroencephalographic (EEG) slow-wave (SW; i.e., the theta 4-7 Hz, delta 1-3 Hz bands) and fast-wave (FW; i.e., the beta 13-30 Hz band) frequency band activity may reflect the cortical-subcortical interactions involved in affective processes (Knyazev, 2007) and are considered to be of interest in the study of emotional states, dispositional affective traits, emotion regulation, and related processes and capabilities (e.g., Arns, Conners, & Kraemer, 2013;Massar, Kenemans, & Schutter, 2014;Putman, Arias-Garcia, Pantazi, & van Schie, 2012;Schutter & Knyazev, 2012;Schutter & Van Honk, 2005a;van Peer, Roelofs, & Spinhoven, 2008;Velikova et al., 2010).Two often-used EEG indices are the SW/FW ratio and SW-FW coupling. The SW/FW ratio results from dividing the SW power density (i.e., theta) by the FW power density (i.e., beta) for each individual participant's EEG recording at a selected brain site or selected sites, with higher ratio scores reflecting relatively more SW than FW power. It has been postulated that a relative predominance of SW over FW power may reflect reduced cortical control function over subcortical drives related to motivational imbalances (Schutter & Van Honk, 2005a). On the other hand, SW-FW coupling (usually delta-beta coupling) is operationalized as the positive correlation between SW and FW in a selected sample, which usually compares samples that have scored high or low on a criterion variable (e.g., trait anxiety; see Putman et al., ...

Electroencephalography theta/beta ratio covaries with mind wandering and functional connectivity in the executive control network

“…79 Worry can be seen as self-generated off-task thought, and is sometimes referred to as a "negative form" of MW. 23 Our current findings support the suggestion that TBR's role in the regulation of automatic attentional threat bias reflects such interplay between bottom-up, mainly subcortical, and top-down prefrontal cortical networks, 76 [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]22,55,[80][81][82] Our current findings further underline the importance of TBR in executive functions and its possible applicability when investigating these. TBR may be used as a marker of MW-related changes in brain activity and can likely be very useful for the study of MW 30 and inattention.…”

Acute effects of caffeine on threat-selective attention: moderation by anxiety and EEG theta/beta ratio

“…Yet, the current participant sample was pre-selected on having a very low caffeine usage, possibly making it difficult to compare this sample to previously used groups of healthy subjects. The occasional absence of the TBR -ACS relation might however indicate that TBR mainly seems to represent attentional control in emotional contexts such as during threat processing or threat interference (Tortella-Feliu et al, 2014;Morillas-Romero et al, 2015;Putman et al, 2010;Putman et al, 2014;Angelidis et al, 2018) and doesn't represent core attentional processes per se.…”

“…Altogether, frontal TBR is suggested to be a reliable electrophysiological marker of executive and attentional control. This may in particular be the case during the processing of emotional information (Morillas-Romero, Tortella-Feliu, Bornas, & Putman, 2015), making frontal TBR a promising tool to investigate cognitive-affect regulation. This includes the study of the effects of psychopharmacological manipulations on attentional control over salient emotional distracters, which likely depend on baseline PFC functioning.…”

Different Resting State EEG Features in Children from Switzerland and Saudi Arabia

“…The conclusions as to whether this is indeed a valid biomarker are mixed, however, there is evidence that this ratio is nevertheless a useful addendum for ADHD diagnosis when it is applied in addition to classical psychiatric diagnostic techniques (Boutros et al, 2005; Snyder et al, 2015). More importantly for the scope of the present article, are those articles demonstrating that the TBR is related to cortical-subcortical interactions associated with emotion regulation, attentional and/or cognitive control (Schutter and Van Honk, 2005; Knyazev, 2007; Putman et al, 2010; Massar et al, 2012; Morillas-Romero et al, 2015). Based on our findings, we can clearly state that Swiss and Saudi Arabian children do not differ in this biomarker, and thus we can conclude that the neurophysiological and psychological mechanisms, which are associated with this ratio are similar for these children.…”

“…The ratio was computed separately for each subject in the EO condition. This ratio was used because several studies have shown that it reflects cortical-subcortical interactions (Knyazev, 2007), and is related to the control of emotional states, dispositional affective traits and emotion regulation (Schutter and Van Honk, 2005; Velikova et al, 2010; Massar et al, 2012; Morillas-Romero et al, 2015). …”