The oscillating brain: Complex and reliable

The human brain is a complex dynamic system capable of generating a multitude of oscillatory waves in support of brain function. Using fMRI, we examined the amplitude of spontaneous low-frequency oscillations (LFO) observed in the human resting brain and the test-retest reliability of relevant amplitude measures. We confirmed prior reports that gray matter exhibits higher LFO amplitude than white matter. Within gray matter, the largest amplitudes appeared along mid-brain structures associated with the “default-mode” network. Additionally, we found that high-amplitude LFO activity in specific brain regions was reliable across time. Furthermore, parcellation-based results revealed significant and highly reliable ranking orders of LFO amplitudes among anatomical parcellation units. Detailed examination of individual low frequency bands showed distinct spatial profiles. Intriguingly, LFO amplitudes in the slow-4 (0.027-0.073 Hz) band, as defined by Buzsáki et al., were most robust in the basal ganglia, as has been found in spontaneous electrophysiological recordings in the awake rat. These results suggest that amplitude measures of LFO can contribute to further between-group characterization of existing and future “resting-state” fMRI datasets.