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Robust Estimation of 1/f Activity Improves Oscillatory Burst Detection

Seymour, Robert A; Alexander, Nicholas; Maguire, Eleanor A; (2022) Robust Estimation of 1/f Activity Improves Oscillatory Burst Detection. European Journal of Neuroscience , 56 (10) pp. 5836-5852. 10.1111/ejn.15829. Green open access

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Abstract

Neural oscillations often occur as transient bursts with variable amplitude and frequency dynamics. Quantifying these effects is important for understanding brain-behaviour relationships, especially in continuous datasets. To robustly measure bursts, rhythmical periods of oscillatory activity must be separated from arrhythmical background 1/f activity, which is ubiquitous in electrophysiological recordings. The Better OSCillation (BOSC) framework achieves this by defining a power threshold above the estimated background 1/f activity, combined with a duration threshold. Here we introduce a modification to this approach called fBOSC which uses a spectral parametrisation tool to accurately model background 1/f activity in neural data. fBOSC (which is openly available as a MATLAB toolbox) is robust to power spectra with oscillatory peaks and can also model non-linear spectra. Through a series of simulations, we show that fBOSC more accurately models the 1/f power spectrum compared with existing methods. fBOSC was especially beneficial where power spectra contained a "knee" below ~0.5-10 Hz, which is typical in neural data. We also found that, unlike other methods, fBOSC was unaffected by oscillatory peaks in the neural power spectrum. Moreover, by robustly modelling background 1/f activity, the sensitivity for detecting oscillatory bursts was standardised across frequencies (e.g. theta- and alpha-bands). Finally, using openly available resting state magnetoencephalography and intracranial electrophysiology datasets, we demonstrate the application of fBOSC for oscillatory burst detection in the theta-band. These simulations and empirical analyses highlight the value of fBOSC in detecting oscillatory bursts, including in datasets that are long and continuous with no distinct experimental trials.

Type: Article
Title: Robust Estimation of 1/f Activity Improves Oscillatory Burst Detection
Location: France
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15829
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.15829
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2022 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: 1/f, burst detection, neurophysiology, oscillations, signal processing, theta
UCL classification: UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Imaging Neuroscience
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10156569
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