Comments and ControversiesImplications of white matter correlates of EEG standing and traveling waves

This letter addresses the recent paper titled “White matter architecture rather than cortical surface area correlates with the EEG alpha rhythm” (Valdés-Hernández et al., 2009) and takes issue with some of its conclusions. I suggest here that the standing wave model cited by the authors provides a robust connection to a restricted class of genuine EEG experiments. The alpha band actually consists of a mixture of distinct phenomena; the standing wave model applies only to the distributed and coherent (global) part. New approaches are suggested that may either refute or support competing dynamic models of EEG and can have major impacts on the experimental design of new cognitive studies.