Phase-amplitude cross-frequency coupling in EEG-derived cortical time series upon an auditory perception task

Recent evidence suggests that cross-frequency coupling (CFC) plays an essential role in multi-scale communication across the brain. The amplitude of the high frequency oscillations, responsible for local activity, is modulated by the phase of the lower frequency activity, in a task and region-relevant way. In this paper, we examine this phase-amplitude coupling in a two-tone oddball paradigm for the low frequency bands (delta, theta, alpha, and beta) and determine the most prominent CFCs. Data consisted of cortical time series, extracted by applying three-dimensional vector field tomography (3D-VFT) to high density (256 channels) electroencephalography (HD-EEG), and CFC analysis was based on the phase-amplitude coupling metric, namely PAC. Our findings suggest CFC spanning across all brain regions and low frequencies. Stronger coupling was observed in the delta band, that is closely linked to sensory processing. However, theta coupling was reinforced in the target tone response, revealing a task-dependent CFC and its role in brain networks communication.