Measurements of functional connectivity between cerebral regions during auditory sensory memory processing

This study aimed to evaluate the functional connectivity between cerebral regions by measuring the phase synchrony of magnetoencephalographic (MEG) signals elicited by regular simple tones and their duration-deviants in a mismatch paradigm. Significant synchrony was clearly identified between the temporal and ipsilateral frontal region following the auditory stimulation. This temporal-frontal interaction was significantly larger in deviant-elicited than standard-elicited activation at 4-25 Hz in the left hemisphere (p<;;0.05), and at 4-8 Hz in the right hemisphere (p<;;0.01). Also, temporal-temporal and temporal-parietal phase synchronies were found in deviant-evoked 4-8 Hz responses. Measurement of functional connectivity may provide a useful window to further understanding of the cortical mechanism to brain cognitive processing.