title: A tunable local field potentials computer simulator to assess minimal requirements for phase-amplitude cross-frequency-coupling estimation.
abstract: The quantitative study of cross-frequency coupling (CFC) is a relevant issue in neuroscience. In local field potentials (LFPs), measured either in the cortex or in the hippocampus, how γ-oscillation amplitude is modulated by changes in θ-rhythms-phase is thought to be important in memory formation. Several methods were proposed to quantify CFC, but reported evidence suggests that experimental parameters affect the results. Therefore, a simulation tool to support the determination of minimal requirements for CFC estimation in order to obtain reliable results is particularly useful. An approach to generate computer-simulated signals having CFC intensity, sweep duration, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and multiphasic-coupling tunable by the user has been developed. Its utility has been proved by a study evaluating minimal sweep duration and SNR required for reliable θ-γ CFC estimation from signals simulating LFP measured in the mouse hippocampus. A MATLAB® software was made available to facilitate methodology reproducibility. The analysis of the synthetic LFPs created by the simulator shows how the minimal sweep duration for achieving accurate θ-γ CFC estimates increases as SNR decreases and the number of CFC levels to discriminate increases. In particular, a sufficient reliability in discriminating five different predetermined CFC levels is reached with 35-s sweep with SNR = 20, while SNR = 5 requires at least 140-s sweep.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Information Engineering , University of Padova , Padova , Italy.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rubega
authors.affiliation: b NeuroChip Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Sciences , University of Padova , Padova , Italy.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fontana
authors.affiliation: b NeuroChip Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Sciences , University of Padova , Padova , Italy.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vassanelli
authors.affiliation: a Department of Information Engineering , University of Padova , Padova , Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sparacino
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D008568:Memory; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D059629:Signal-To-Noise Ratio; D013826:Theta Rhythm
keywords: Cross-frequency coupling; local field potential; model; neuroscience; simulation