Full Length ArticlesA method for event-related phase/amplitude coupling

Phase/amplitude coupling (PAC) is emerging as an important electrophysiological measure of local and long-distance neuronal communication. Current techniques for calculating PAC provide a numerical index that represents an average value across an arbitrarily long time period. This requires researchers to rely on block design experiments and temporal concatenation at the cost of the sub-second temporal resolution afforded by electrophysiological recordings. Here we present a method for calculating event-related phase/amplitude coupling (ERPAC) designed to capture the temporal evolution of task-related changes in PAC across events or between distant brain regions that is applicable to human or animal electromagnetic recording.

► Event-related phase/amplitude coupling (ERPAC) enables time-resolved coupling. ► ERPAC is easy to instantiate for human and animal electrophysiology. ► ERPAC provides novel insight into the timing of brain dynamics. ► ERPAC can be used to assess the timing of coupling across brain regions.