Scaling Properties of Fluctuations in Human Electroencephalogram

Abstract

The fluctuation properties of the human electroencephalogram (EEG) time series are studied using detrended fluctuation analysis. For all 128 channels in each of 18 subjects studied, it is found that the standard deviation of the fluctuations exhibits scaling behaviors in two regions. Topographical plots of the scaling exponents reveal the spatial structure of the nonlinear electrical activities recorded on the scalp. Moment analyses are performed to extract the gross features of all the scaling exponents. The correlation between the two scaling exponents in each channel is also examined. It is found that two indices can characterize the overall properties of the fluctuation behaviors of the brain dynamics for every subject and that they vary widely across the subjects.