Brain electrical activity analysis using wavelet-based informational tools

The traditional way of analyzing brain electrical activity, on the basis of Electroencephalography (EEG) records, relies mainly on visual inspection and years of training. Although it is quite useful, of course, one has to acknowledge its subjective nature that hardly allows for a systematic protocol. In order to overcome this undesirable feature, a quantitative EEG analysis has been developed over the years that introduces objective measures, reflecting not only the characteristics of the brain activity itself but also giving clues conceming the underlying associated neural dynamics. The processing of information by the brain is reflected in dynamical changes of the electrical activity in (i) time, (ii) frequency, and (iii) space. Therefore, the concomitant studies require methods capable of describing the qualitative variation of the signal in both time and frequency. In the present work we introduce new information tools based on the wavelet transform for the assessment of EEG data as adapted to a non-extensive scenario. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.