Are high-frequency (600 Hz) oscillations in human somatosensory evoked potentials due to phase-resetting phenomena?

Objective: Median nerve somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP) contain a brief oscillatory wavelet burst at about 600 Hz (σ-burst) superimposed on the initial cortical component (N20). While invasive single-cell recordings suggested that this burst is generated by increased neuronal spiking activity in area 3b, recent non-invasive scalp recordings could not reveal concomitant single-trial added-activity, suggesting that the SEP burst might instead be generated by phase-reset of ongoing high-frequency EEG. Here, a statistical model and exemplary data are presented reconciling these seemingly contradictory results.

Methods: A statistical model defined the conditions required to detect added-activity in a set of single-trial SEP. Its predictions were tested by analyzing human single-trial scalp SEP recorded with custom-made low-noise amplifiers.

Results: The noise level in previous studies did not allow to detect single-trial added-activity in the period concomitant with the trial-averaged σ-burst. In contrast, optimized low-noise recordings do reveal added-activity in a set of single-trials.

Conclusions: The experimental noise level is the decisive factor determining the detectability of added-activity in single-trials. A low-noise experiment provided direct evidence that the SEP σ-burst is at least partly generated by added-activity matching earlier invasive single-cell recordings.

Significance: Quantitative criteria are provided for the feasibility of single-trial detectability of band-limited added-activity.