Single-trial EEG-fMRI reveals the dynamics of cognitive function

Abstract

Two major non-invasive techniques in cognitive neuroscience, electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), have complementary advantages with regard to their spatial and temporal resolution. Recent hardware and software developments have made it feasible to acquire EEG and fMRI data simultaneously. We emphasize the potential of simultaneous EEG and fMRI recordings to pursue new strategies in cognitive neuroimaging. Specifically, we propose that, by exploiting the combined spatiotemporal resolution of the methods, the integration of EEG and fMRI recordings on a single-trial level enables the rich temporal dynamics of information processing to be characterized within spatially well-defined neural networks.