Complex, multifocal, individual-specific attention-related cortical functional circuits

ABSTRACT

Recent studies focusing on the analysis of individual patterns of non-sensory-motor CNS activity may significantly alter our view of CNS functional mapping. We have recently provided evidence for highly variable attention-related Slow Potential (SP) generating cortical areas across individuals (Basile et al., 2003, 2006). In this work, we present new evidence, searching for other physiological indexes of attention by a new use of a well established method, for individual-specific sets of cortical areas active during expecting attention. We applied latency corrected peak averaging to oscillatory bursts, from 124-channel EEG recordings, and modeled their generators by current density reconstruction. We first computed event-related total power, and averaging was based on individual patterns of narrow task-induced band-power. This method is sensitive to activity out of synchrony with stimuli, and may detect task-related changes missed by regular Event-Related Potential (ERP) averaging. We additionally analyzed overall inter-electrode phase-coherence. The main results were (1) the detection of two bands of attention-induced beta range oscillations (around 25 and 21 Hz), whose scalp topography and current density cortical distribution were complex multi-focal, and highly variable across subjects, including prefrontal and posterior cortical areas. Most important, however, was the observation that (2) the generators of task-induced oscillations are largely the same individual-specific sets of cortical areas active during the resting, baseline state. We concluded that attention-related electrical cortical activity is highly individual-specific (significantly different from sensory-related visual evoked potentials or delta and theta induced band-power), and to a great extent already established during mere wakefulness. We discuss the critical implications of those results, in combination with other studies presenting individual data, to functional...