RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 States and traits of neural irregularity in the age-varying human brain
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 103432
DO 10.1101/103432
A1 Leonhard Waschke
A1 Malte Wöestmann
A1 Jonas Obleser
YR 2017
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/05/19/103432.abstract
AB Sensory representations of the physical world and thus human percepts are susceptible to fluctuations in brain state or “neural irregularity”. Furthermore, aging brains display altered levels of irregularity. We here show that a single, within-trial information-theoretic measure (weighted permutation entropy) captures neural irregularity in the human electroencephalogram as a proxy for both, trait-like differences between individuals of varying age, and state-like fluctuations that bias perceptual decisions. First, the overall level of neural irregularity increased with participants‘ age, paralleled by a decrease in variability over time, likely indexing age-related disintegration on structural and functional levels of brain activity. Second, states of higher neural irregularity were associated with optimized sensory encoding and a subsequently increased probability of choosing the first of two physically identical stimuli. In sum, neural irregularity not only characterizes behaviorally relevant brain states, but also can identify trait-like changes that come with age.