Auditory and Visual Tasks Influence the Temporal Dynamics of EEG Microstates During Post-encoding Rest

Re-activations of task-dependent patterns of neural activity take place during post-encoding periods of wakeful rest and sleep. However, it is still unclear how the temporal dynamics of brain states change during these periods, which are shaped by prior conscious experiences. Here, we examined the very brief periods of wakeful rest immediately after encoding and recognition of auditory and visual stimuli, by applying the EEG microstate analysis, in which the global variance of the EEG is explained by only a few prototypical topographies. We identified the dominant brain states of sub-second duration during the tasks-dependent periods of rest, finding that the temporal dynamics—represented here by two temporal parameters: the frequency of occurrence and the fraction of time coverage—of three task-related microstate classes changed compared to wakeful rest. This study provides evidence of experience-dependent temporal changes in post-encoding periods of resting brain activity, which can be captured using the EEG microstates approach.