Amygdala units phase-locked to theta in 2 of 5 epilepsy patients, with positive patient means in all five

We tested spike-field coupling in 42 human amygdala units from 5 epilepsy patients using OpenNeuro ds003374 v1.1.1. The pre-registered primary analysis measured pairwise phase consistency (PPC0) between spike times and same-side bipolar macro-SEEG phase at 3–8 Hz, with 200 independent per-trial circular shifts as a null. Nine units had p < 0.05 (binomial p = 0.000193; Holm-adjusted p = 0.000965); patient mean z was positive in all five patients (exact sign-flip p = 0.03125), and the unit mean z was 1.75 (patient-cluster bootstrap 95% CI 0.37–3.41). The planned H1 criterion was met, but all nine significant theta units came from two patients (five in patient 02 and four in patient 04); the other three patients had small positive means. Exploratory phase locking was also significant after Holm correction in delta (7/42 units; p = 0.014) and alpha (8/42; p = 0.004), but not beta or low gamma. A secondary spike-triggered high-gamma measure was significant by unit count (16/42; Holm p < 0.001), yet its patient sign-flip test was not significant (p = 0.125), two patients had negative mean z, and ten significant units came from patient 02. It is therefore not a general group result. Inference is limited by five patients, dependence among units sharing wires and patients, unknown single- versus multi-unit status, lack of an aversive-versus-neutral comparison, and possible spike energy in the macro signal for high gamma. Low-frequency locking is not explained by spike energy. The analysis used source-data spike sorting and does not validate its quality.

amygdala · spike-field coupling · phase locking · intracranial EEG · pairwise phase consistency · theta rhythm · high gamma · human neuroscience · OpenNeuro ds003374