Periodic and aperiodic contributions to theta‐beta ratios across adulthood

Finley, A. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0881-9147, Angus, D. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9722-2475, van Reekum, C. M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1516-1101, Davidson, R. J. and Schaefer, S. M. (2022) Periodic and aperiodic contributions to theta‐beta ratios across adulthood. Psychophysiology, 59 (11). e14113. ISSN 0048-5772 doi: 10.1111/psyp.14113

Abstract/Summary

The ratio of fronto-central theta (4–7 Hz) to beta oscillations (13–30 Hz), known as the theta-beta ratio, is negatively correlated with attentional control, reinforcement learning, executive function, and age. Although theta-beta ratios have been found to decrease with age in adolescents and young adults, theta has been found to increase with age in older adults. Moreover, age-related decrease in individual alpha peak frequency and flattening of the 1/f aperiodic component may artifactually inflate the association between theta-beta ratio and age. These factors lead to an incomplete understanding of how theta-beta ratio varies across the lifespan and the extent to which variation is due to a conflation of aperiodic and periodic activity. We conducted a partially preregistered analysis examining the cross-sectional associations between age and resting canonical fronto-central theta-beta ratio, individual alpha peak frequency, and aperiodic component (n = 268; age 36–84, M = 55.8, SD = 11.0). Age was negatively associated with theta-beta ratios, individual peak alpha frequencies, and the aperiodic exponent. The correlation between theta-beta ratios and age remained after controlling for individual peak alpha frequencies, but was nonsignificant when controlling for the aperiodic exponent. Aperiodic exponent fully mediated the relationship between theta-beta ratio and age, although beta remained significantly associated with age after controlling for theta, individual peak alpha, and aperiodic exponent. Results replicate previous observations and show age-related decreases in theta-beta ratios are not due to age-related decrease in individual peak alpha frequencies but primarily explained by flattening of the aperiodic component with age.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/105920
Identification Number/DOI	10.1111/psyp.14113
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Interdisciplinary Research Centres (IDRCs) > Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics (CINN) Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Psychology Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Neuroscience
Publisher	Wiley
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