Abstract
Connectivity analysis characterizes normal and altered brain function, for example, using the phase lag index (PLI), which is based on phase relations. However, reliability of PLI over time is limited, especially for single- or regional-link analysis. One possible cause is repeated changes of network configuration during registration. These network changes may be associated with changes of the surface potential fields, which can be characterized by microstate analysis. Microstate analysis describes repeating periods of quasistable surface potential fields lasting in the subsecond time range. This study aims to describe a novel combination of PLI with microstate analysis (microstate-segmented PLI = msPLI) and to determine its impact on the reliability of single links, regional links, and derived graph measures. msPLI was calculated in a cohort of 34 healthy controls three times over 2 years. A fully automated processing of electroencephalography was used. Resulting connectomes were compared using Pearson correlation, and test–retest reliability (TRT reliability) was assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient. msPLI resulted in higher TRT reliability than classical PLI analysis for single or regional links, average clustering coefficient, average shortest path length, and degree diversity. Combination of microstates and phase-derived connectivity measures such as PLI improves reliability of single-link, regional-link, and graph analysis.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
