Abstract
A growing body of clinical and cognitive neuroscience studies have adapted a broadband EEG microstate approach to evaluate the electrical activity of large-scale cortical networks. However, the functional aspects of these microstates have not yet been systematically reviewed. Here, we present an overview of the existing literature and systematize the results to provide hints on the functional role of electrical brain microstates. Studies that evaluated and manipulated the temporal properties of resting-state microstates and utilized questionnaires, task-initiated thoughts, specific tasks before or between EEG session(s), pharmacological interventions, neuromodulation approaches, or localized sources of the extracted microstates were selected. Fifty studies that met the inclusion criteria were included. A new microstate labeling system has been proposed for a comprehensible comparison between the studies, where four classical microstates are referred to as A-D, and the others are labeled by the frequency of their appearance. Microstate A was associated with both auditory and visual processing and links to subjects’ arousal/arousability. Microstate B showed associations with visual processing related to self, self-visualization, and autobiographical memory. Microstate C was related to processing personally significant information, self-reflection, and self-referential internal mentation rather than autonomic information processing. In contrast, microstate E was related to processing interoceptive and emotional information and to the salience network. Microstate D was associated with executive functioning. Microstate F is suggested to be a part of the Default Mode Network and plays a role in personally significant information processing, mental simulations, and theory of mind. Microstate G is potentially linked to the somatosensory network.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all authors who kindly shared the topographies and electrode coordinates from their original studies. This article is based upon the work from COST Action CA18106 “Neural architecture of consciousness,” supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). This work was funded by the Vilnius University grant MSFJM8/2021. CM was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant No. 320030_184677).
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PT: reviewed the articles, summarized and visualized the results, wrote the manuscript. CMM: read and edited the manuscript, TK: read and edited the manuscript, IG-B: conceptualized and guided the review, wrote and edited the manuscript.
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Tarailis, P., Koenig, T., Michel, C.M. et al. The Functional Aspects of Resting EEG Microstates: A Systematic Review. Brain Topogr 37, 181–217 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-023-00958-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-023-00958-9