Third order spectral analysis robust to mixing artifacts for mapping cross-frequency interactions in EEG/MEG

The effectiveness of the method is first demonstrated on simulated EEG data. The proposed approach shows a reduced sensitivity to mixing artifacts when compared with a traditional bispectral metric. It also exhibits a better performance in extracting phase relationships between sources than the imaginary part of the cross-spectrum for delayed interactions. The method is then applied to real EEG data recorded during resting state. A cross-frequency interaction is observed between brain sources at 10 Hz and 20 Hz, i.e., for alpha and beta rhythms. This interaction is then projected from signal to source level by using a fit-based procedure. This approach highlights a 10-20 Hz dominant interaction localized in an occipito-parieto-central network.