EEG Microstates: A Tool to Study Moment-to-Moment Large-Scale Functional Brain Network Dynamics in Development

EEG microstates are topographical patterns of EEG activity that offer a lens into the fast temporal dynamics of large-scale functional network activity and whole-brain functional organization. Microstates are thought to reflect momentary configurations of these large-scale functional networks and can capture temporal patterns of network configurations and transitions between configurations at the millisecond-scale. Although extensively studied in adults, microstates remain underutilized in developmental neuroscience, despite their potential for tracking significant developmental changes in network dynamics indicated by developmental fMRI studies. To facilitate future developmental microstate research, we provide a tutorial for computing and interpreting microstates using the generate_MicroStates functionality integrated within the standardized HAPPE (Harvard Automated Processing Pipeline for Electroencephalography) software, tailored for developmental EEG data. We first detail the conceptual foundations and current limitations of microstate literature. We then present a step-by-step guide to microstate analysis with resting state and task EEG data within HAPPE. Data and annotated analysis code for this manuscript are freely available on GitHub as a tutorial supplement to the open-access HAPPE software. This tutorial aims to make microstate computation more accessible, robust, and reproducible in developmental cognitive neuroscience.