TY - JOUR TI - Modality-specific tracking of attention and sensory statistics in the human electrophysiological spectral exponent AU - Waschke, Leonhard AU - Donoghue, Thomas AU - Fiedler, Lorenz AU - Smith, Sydney AU - Garrett, Douglas D AU - Voytek, Bradley AU - Obleser, Jonas A2 - Chait, Maria A2 - Shinn-Cunningham, Barbara G A2 - Postle, Bradley R A2 - Simon, Jonathan Z VL - 10 PY - 2021 DA - 2021/10/21 SP - e70068 C1 - eLife 2021;10:e70068 DO - 10.7554/eLife.70068 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.70068 AB - A hallmark of electrophysiological brain activity is its 1/f-like spectrum – power decreases with increasing frequency. The steepness of this ‘roll-off’ is approximated by the spectral exponent, which in invasively recorded neural populations reflects the balance of excitatory to inhibitory neural activity (E:I balance). Here, we first establish that the spectral exponent of non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG) recordings is highly sensitive to general (i.e., anaesthesia-driven) changes in E:I balance. Building on the EEG spectral exponent as a viable marker of E:I, we then demonstrate its sensitivity to the focus of selective attention in an EEG experiment during which participants detected targets in simultaneous audio-visual noise. In addition to these endogenous changes in E:I balance, EEG spectral exponents over auditory and visual sensory cortices also tracked auditory and visual stimulus spectral exponents, respectively. Individuals’ degree of this selective stimulus–brain coupling in spectral exponents predicted behavioural performance. Our results highlight the rich information contained in 1/f-like neural activity, providing a window into diverse neural processes previously thought to be inaccessible in non-invasive human recordings. KW - human KW - electrophysiology KW - EEG JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -