Owing to its advantages in time resolution, electroencephalography (EEG) provides an important basis for studying the dynamic cognitive process of the human brain. To explore the electrophysiological mechanism of psychological processes, scalp EEG must have good test-retest reliability. Most studies explore the reliability of the resting-state EEG (rsEEG) or event-related potentials (ERP), lacking a comprehensive comparison of multiple states. We comprehensively compared the test-retest reliability of the two rsEEG with eyes-open (E0) and eyes-close (EC) states, and the ERPs of PVT and oddball tasks, from frequency, time, and spatial domains to identify more widely applicable indicators. A total of 42 healthy adults (age range=18-26 years old; mean=19.5 1 1.4 years old; 14 males) underwent all three EEG recording sessions, including the present (Session 1), 90 mins later (Session 2), and one month later (Session 3). During each EEG recording session, all the participants completed the same five states including two resting states (eyes-open, eyes-closed, each with 5 minutes) and two task states (PVT and oddball task). Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) were computed to assess the test-retest reproducibility of the five states. This study compares and analyses the test-retest reliability of two resting-state and three task-state EEG from the perspectives of time, frequency, and spatial domains. Results revealed the following: (1) The test-retest reliability of rsEEG was generally better than that of ERP. (2) For rsEEG, the test-retest reliability of the EC resting-state was higher than that of the EO, with the ICC median value of approximately 0.6. Furthermore, the test-retest reliability of the alpha band was the highest in all frequency bands. (3) For the two task-states ERP, the overall ICC of the PVT paradigm was higher than that of the oddball paradigm, and the test-retest reliability was highest at about 200 ms after the stimulus onsets. (4) In the spatial domain, the test-retest reliability is higher in the central region than in the peripheral region, which may be related to the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Our research involves multiple resting-state and task-state experiments. Based on the characteristics of frequency, time, and space domains, we comprehensively compared the optimal retest characteristics of multiple EEG and suggest the possible reasons. Some suggestions for the selection of appropriate experimental paradigms and indicators for the follow-up study of EEG test-retest reliability are provided and guide the application of EEG in the basic and clinical fields.

基于脑电探讨心理过程的认知神经机制,需要信号本身具有良好的重测信度。本研究多角度对比了睁眼、闭眼两种静息态脑电以及精神运动警觉任务、Oddball两种任务态事件相关电位的重测信度。发现静息态的重测信度普遍优于任务态,其中闭眼静息态又比睁眼静息态的重测信度更高,alpha频段的重测信度在所有频段中最高。对于两种任务态,在时域上均表现为刺激出现后200 ms左右较高的重测信度。在空间上, 5种状态的结果都表明中央区域比外周区域的重测信度更高,这可能与外周区域更容易出现伪迹有关。本研究涉及多个静息态和任务态脑电实验,在频域、时域、空域三个维度的特征上,较为全面地对比了重测信度并分析了可能的原因,为后续研究脑电信号重测信度选择合适的实验范式和指标提出了建议,对于基础和临床领域的脑电应用都具有重要参考价值。

国家重点研发计划重点专项(2021YFC2501502);; 国家自然科学基金面上项目(NSFC31971028)资助