title: MEG-measured auditory steady-state oscillations show high test-retest reliability: A sensor and source-space analysis.
abstract: Stability of oscillatory signatures across magnetoencephalography (MEG) measurements is an important prerequisite for basic and clinical research that has been insufficiently addressed. Here, we evaluated the test-retest reliability of auditory steady-state responses (ASSRs) over two MEG sessions. The study required participants (N=13) to detect the rare occurrence of pure tones interspersed within a stream of 5 Hz or 40 Hz amplitude-modulated (AM) tones. Intraclass correlations (ICC; Shrout and Fleiss, 1979) were derived to assess stability of spectral power changes and the inter-trial phase coherence (ITPC) of task-elicited neural responses. ASSRs source activity was estimated using eLORETA beamforming from bilateral auditory cortex. ASSRs to 40 Hz AM stimuli evoked stronger power modulation and phase-locking than 5 Hz stimulation. Overall, spectral power and ITPC values at both sensor- and source-level showed robust ICC values. Notably, ITPC measures yielded higher ICCs (~0.86-0.96) between sessions compared to the assessment of spectral power change (~0.61-0.82). Our data indicate that spectral modulations and phase consistency of ASSRs in MEG data are highly reproducible, providing support for MEG-measured oscillatory parameters in basic and clinical research.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging (CCNi), Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology (INP), College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences & College of Science and Engineering, University of Glasgow, 58 Hillhead Street, Glasgow G12 8QB, Scotland, United Kingdom. Electronic address: Heng-RuMay.Tan@glasgow.ac.uk.
authors.forename: H-R M
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging (CCNi), Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology (INP), College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences & College of Science and Engineering, University of Glasgow, 58 Hillhead Street, Glasgow G12 8QB, Scotland, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gross
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging (CCNi), Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology (INP), College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences & College of Science and Engineering, University of Glasgow, 58 Hillhead Street, Glasgow G12 8QB, Scotland, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Uhlhaas
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: 5Hz and 40Hz amplitude-modulated (AM) tones; Auditory steady-state responses (ASSRs); Inter-trial phase coherence (ITPC); Magnetoencephalography (MEG); Test–retest reliability; Time–frequency analysis; eLORETA beamforming