Macroscale dynamics of EEG microstates constitute the periodic and aperiodic features of the neural power spectrum

Removing spatial projections of EEG microstate configurations from high-density scalp EEG strongly attenuates alpha and theta rhythms and the aperiodic 1/f background in the residual power spectrum.

• Why it matters: Spectral decomposition is a key tool for characterizing human brain activity, but it has not directly linked periodic and aperiodic spectral components to the time-domain dynamics of EEG microstates.
• What they did: Using orthogonal subspace projection on scalp recordings and modeled cortical generators, the study isolated microstate-related contributions and then parameterized the residual power spectral density.
• The result: Selectively removing microstates mapped specific oscillatory and aperiodic 1/f components, and microstate average duration and temporal persistence strongly correlated with periodic alpha power, theta power, and the aperiodic 1/f background.

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