Macroscopic state transitions in electroencephalographic dynamics

Search Swinburne Research Bank

Home

List of Titles

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/77513

Check Swinburne's subscriptions for full text availability

Title: Macroscopic state transitions in electroencephalographic dynamics
Author(s): Liley, David
Abstract: Despite the discovery of the human alpha rhythm over 70 years ago, physiologically plausible theories for its dynamical genesis have met with only limited success. However over the last decade we have developed a general theory of cortical electrorhythmogenesis that is able to explain the origin of this cortically ubiquitous rhythm. This theory predicts that all the major spectral features of the resting electroencephalogram (EEG), the '1/f' low frequency power and the alpha and beta 'resonances', are dynamically explicable if the EEG is viewed as arising from a system being perturbed near an instability (or critical point). Here we present recent experimental results in support of this conjecture. By analysing EEG recorded from healthy volunteers it is found that increases in total power and increased low frequency '1/f' power are all predictive for non-linear deterministic structure in the spontaneous EEG. These results when intepreted in the context of our theory imply that macroscopically cortical tissue continually switches between qualitatively distinct dynamical states. This talk will outline these experimental methods and results as well as discussing their physiological implications and cognitive relevance.
Publication type: Conference paper
Source: Paper presented at the 1st Annual Mathematical Neuroscience Meeting, Edinburgh, Scotland, 17-19 March 2008
Publication year: 2008
Keyword(s): Alpha rhythm; Electroencephalogram; Electroencephalographic dynamics; Macroscopically cortical tissue
Publisher: International Centre for Mathematical Sciences
Publisher URL: http://www.icms.org.uk/workshops/mathneuro