Biology subjects

Steinfath, T. P.

Publications and source records attributed to Steinfath, T. P..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Canonical Correlation Analysis and Multi-Channel Cardiography Improve Artefact Cleaning in Heartbeat-Locked Analyses

Cardiac artefacts are problematic for neurophysiological analyses, especially for heartbeat-locked brain responses where neural activity and artefacts co-occur in time. Traditional approaches using single-channel electrocardiography for artefact removal do not fully capture the multidimensional spread of cardiac fields. Moreover, even if several channels are recorded, no established methods exists for integrating them for artefact removal. Here, we propose a multivariate approach based on Canonical Correlation for cardiac artefact removal and report its effectiveness in electroencephalography recorded simultaneously with a custom 15-channel electrocardiography in 14 participants. We quantify cleaning quality via residual R-peak artefact and neural signal preservation via alpha power. Canonical Correlation systematically outperforms the traditional Independent Component Analysis in both reducing R-peak artefacts and preserving alpha power. By analysing all possible channel combinations, we found that neck or supraclavicular electrodes improve cleaning when only a few channels are available. With four or five channels, precordial electrodes in combination with limb or supraclavicular locations provide a performance comparable to the 15-channel setup. While these findings require validation in other datasets, we outline clear decision criteria for cleaning efficiency and show that canonical correlation is a reliable approach for multi-channel cardiac artefact removal.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Heartbeat-evoked responses in M/EEG: A systematic review of methods with suggestions for analysis and reporting

Heartbeat-evoked responses (HER), as measured by electroencephalography (EEG) or magnetoencephalography (MEG), represent neural activity time-locked to heartbeats and are widely used as a marker of cardiac interoception in the study of brain-body interactions. However, HER studies report largely variable findings, at least partially due to methodological variability. To achieve consensus on HER processing and improve the reproducibility of findings, the field urgently requires a structured summary of the methods employed so far. To this end, we conducted a systematic review of 132 HER studies using non-invasive M/EEG recordings in humans. Our results reveal substantial heterogeneity across most steps of HER analysis, ranging from data acquisition and preprocessing to HER estimation and statistical approaches. The large diversity in the processing choices is accompanied by considerable proportions of unreported methodological information across reviewed studies, reaching up to 80% for key processing steps. In addition, less than 33% of studies had enough statistical power to reliably detect meta-level HER effects, while their reported spatiotemporal locations varied substantially. We provide a comprehensive reporting and quality control checklist to aid in the development of more standardized procedures, highlighting critical steps for robust HER investigations. Additionally, we share the full extracted dataset, including an interactive version, to support other researchers in answering additional specific questions they may have. We hope that these resources will improve the robustness, reproducibility, and transparency of research in the growing HER field.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Neural Representations of Extrasystoles: A Predictive Coding Perspective

The coordinated interplay between brain and body is essential for survival, with the heart-brain axis playing a fundamental role in perceptual, cognitive and motor processes. Central to this interaction, the heart-evoked potential (HEP) represents a neural correlate of the heart activity. Further, the HEP is thought to represent a neuronal prediction for each heartbeat, raising questions about its role in arrhythmia. Yet, previous studies have primarily focused on regular heart rhythms, with only a few investigations delving into arrhythmias and, notably, none into extrasystoles, a form of benign arrhythmias that disrupt the regular heart rhythm. Extrasystoles represent a unique possibility for investigating brain responses to unexpected pronounced alterations in heart rhythm. We took advantage of the largest dataset (103 subjects with 3000 extrasystoles), including both EEG and ECG recordings, and analysed the neural response to both types of extrasystoles (supraventricular and ventricular) using multiverse approaches and control analysis in time and source space. We found that the HEP was significantly reduced for ventricular extrasystoles with underlying sources in the left insular. For the postextrasystolic beat of both types of extrasystoles, we found a significantly earlier and increased HEP originating from sources in the left frontal orbital cortex and the anterior cingulate gyri. The reduced HEP response to the ventricular extrasystole might result from inactive interoceptive cardiac pathways. In contrast, increased HEP of the postextrasystolic beat along with the anatomical neural HEP generators may reflect an interoceptive prediction error arising from a naturally occurring discrepancy between the predicted and actual heart rhythm, with a main source in the anterior cingulate gyri, a primary location for prediction error processing.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

Alterations in rhythmic and non-rhythmic resting-state EEG activity and their link to cognition in older age

While many structural and biochemical changes in the brain have been previously associated with aging, the findings concerning electrophysiological signatures, reflecting functional properties of neuronal networks, remain rather controversial. To try resolve this issue, we took advantage of a large population study (N=1703) and comprehensively investigated the association of multiple EEG biomarkers (power of alpha and theta oscillations, individual alpha peak frequency (IAF), the slope of 1/f power spectral decay), aging, and aging and cognitive performance. Cognitive performance was captured with three factors representing processing speed, episodic memory, and interference resolution. Our results show that not only did IAF decline with age but it was also associated with interference resolution over multiple cortical areas. To a weaker extent, 1/f slope of the PSD showed age-related reductions, mostly in frontal brain regions. Finally, alpha power was negatively associated with the speed of processing in the right frontal lobe, despite the absence of age-related alterations. Our results thus demonstrate that multiple electrophysiological features, as well as their interplay, should be considered when investigating the association between age, neuronal activity, and cognitive performance.

neuroscience↗