Cross-Spectral Factor Analysis

In neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia or depression, there is often a disruption in the way that regions of the brain communicate with one another. To facilitate understanding of network-level communication between brain regions, we introduce a novel model of multisite low-frequency neural recordings, such as local field potentials (LFPs) and electroencephalograms (EEGs). The proposed model, named Cross-Spectral Factor Analysis (CSFA), breaks the observed signal into factors defined by unique spatio-spectral properties. These properties are granted to the factors via a Gaussian process formulation in a multiple kernel learning framework. In this way, the LFP signals can be mapped to a lower dimensional space in a way that retains information of relevance to neuroscientists. Critically, the factors are interpretable. In addition, the proposed approach was empirically more or as predictive of genotype and behavioral context for data collected in a rodent model when compared to commonly used approaches that lack the interpretability of CSFA. CSFA provides a useful tool for understanding neural dynamics, particularly by aiding in the design of causal follow-up experiments.