Assessment of neural dynamic coupling and causal interactions between independent EEG components from cognitive tasks using linear and nonlinear methods

Over the past few years there has been an increased interest in studying the underlying neural mechanism of cognitive brain activity. In this direction, we study the brain activity based on its independent components instead of the EEG signal itself. Both linear and nonlinear synchronization measures are applied to EEG components, which are free of volume conduction effects and background noise. More specifically, a robust nonlinear state-space generalized synchronization assessment method and the recently introduced partial directed coherence are investigated in a working memory paradigm, during mental rehearsal of pictures. The latter is a linear method able to assess not only the independence of the brain regions, but also the direction of the statistically significant relationships. The results are in accordance with previous psychophysiology studies suggesting increased synchrony between prefrontal and parietal components during the rehearsal process, most prominently in gamma (ca. 40 Hz) band. This study indicates that functional connectivity during cognitive processes may be successfully assessed using independent components, which reflect distinct spatial patterns of activity.