Frontoparietal power-based connectivity analysis across different frequencies during a working memory task

Abstract

Connectivity in the frontoparietal network of the brain has been established as a marker of neural processes related to working memory. This work evaluated a power-based correlation method to investigate the frontoparietal connectivity of 13 participants during a working memory task across the theta, alpha, and beta frequencies. Higher connectivity of electrodes was found within functional regions compared to connectivity outside functional regions of the brain across all frequencies, suggesting that the spatial resolution of this method is sufficient to assess connectivity at a functional level. The primary finding was that frontoparietal connectivity in the alpha frequency band was higher compared to the other two frequencies. These results show that the method used here can display the functional role of alpha connectivity against other frequencies, further supporting the role of the alpha band as a neurophysiological marker of information processing in the brain. This method may be useful to obtain physiologically relevant features of working memory to improve EEG human-machine interfaces.