EEG microstates as a tool for studying the temporal dynamics of whole‐brain neuronal networks: A review

By C. Michel, Thomas Koenig. NeuroImage, 2017

1,164 citations recorded by the source corpus.

ABSTRACT The present review discusses a well‐established method for characterizing resting‐state activity of the human brain using multichannel electroencephalography (EEG). This method involves the examination of electrical microstates in the brain, which are defined as successive short time periods during which the configuration of the scalp potential field remains semi‐stable, suggesting quasi‐simultaneity of activity among the nodes of large‐scale networks. A few prototypic microstates, which occur in a repetitive sequence across time, can be reliably identified across participants. Researchers have proposed that these microstates represent the basic building blocks of the chain of spontaneous conscious mental processes, and that their occurrence and temporal dynamics determine the quality of mentation. Several studies have further demonstrated that disturbances of mental processes associated with neurological and psychiatric conditions manifest as changes in the temporal dynamics of specific microstates. Combined EEG‐fMRI studies and EEG source imaging studies have indicated that EEG microstates are closely associated with resting‐state networks as identified using fMRI. The scale‐free properties of the time series of EEG microstates explain why similar networks can be observed at such different time scales. The present review will provide an overview of these EEG microstates, available methods for analysis, the functional interpretations of findings regarding these microstates, and their behavioral and clinical correlates. HighlightsEEG microstates are short time periods of stable scalp potential fields.EEG microstates are generated by a network of approximately simultaneously active sources.EEG microstates might represent the neural correlates of the contents of consciousness.The temporal dynamics of EEG microstates is altered in cognitive and mental diseases.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a616aa906e8a57b9f97d5db561ab6fcfd0dec68d

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In Cognitive Neuroscience

Citations in the corpus

Capturing the spatiotemporal dynamics of self-generated, task-initiated thoughts with EEG and fMRI (2019, positive): “EEG microstates reflect brief epochs of coherent neuronal activity that persist for around 100ms (Khanna et al., 2015; Michel and Koenig, 2018).”
Age-related neural dynamics of empathy in preschoolers: an EEG study with naturalistic viewing (2026, unknown): “Complementarily, microstate analysis tracks global spatiotemporal dynamics (Michel and Koenig 2018).”
Age-Related Characteristics of Resting-State Electroencephalographic Signals and the Corresponding Analytic Approaches: A Review (2024, background): “Numerous studies have reported that only four clustering maps can explain the proportion of global variance of 64–84% [152].”
Monitoring pilot trainees’ cognitive control under a simulator-based training process with EEG microstate analysis (2024, unknown): “Researchers have reported both positive and negative correlations of microstate class C with cognitive control mechanisms as reviewed in (Michel and Koenig, 2018) 40 .”