A Mathematical Framework for EEG Functional Connectivity: Taxonomy, Measure Relationships, Identifiability, and Analytical Bounds

Overview & Synopsis

Electroencephalographic (EEG) functional connectivity is quantified using diverse measures of statistical dependence, spectral coupling, phase synchronization, information transfer, directed interactions, cross-frequency coupling, and network topology. An important question is what can be inferred about one connectivity measure from another. This paper develops a mathematical framework that treats connectivity measures as mappings from an explicitly defined admissible state space to observable values. For a source measure and a target measure, the set of target values compatible with an observed source value is defined as a cross-connectivity attainable set. This formulation distinguishes exact determination, conditional determination using additional information, bounded inference, approximate identification, and non-identifiability. The framework is extended to multichannel connectivity matrices, graph measures, and dynamic connectivity. It also incorporates the influence of filtering, referencing, volume conduction, source leakage, inverse modeling, epoch duration, and estimator assumptions on admissible inferences. Analytical examples examine relationships between covariance and correlation, mutual information and correlation under joint Gaussianity, coherence and phase-locking value under restrictive signal conditions, and the general non-identifiability of the phase-lag index and weighted phase-lag index without additional assumptions. By making assumptions and attainable values explicit, the framework provides a systematic basis for determining what connectivity results can and cannot establish about other measures.