Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis of Human EEG: Preliminary Investigation and Comparison with the Wavelet Transform Modulus Maxima Technique

Recently, many lines of investigation in neuroscience and statistical physics have converged to raise the hypothesis that the underlying pattern of neuronal activation which results in electroencephalography (EEG) signals is nonlinear, with self-affine dynamics, while scalp-recorded EEG signals themselves are nonstationary. Therefore, traditional methods of EEG analysis may miss many properties inherent in such signals. Similarly, fractal analysis of EEG signals has shown scaling behaviors that may not be consistent with pure monofractal processes. In this study, we hypothesized that scalp-recorded human EEG signals may be better modeled as an underlying multifractal process. We utilized the Physionet online database, a publicly available database of human EEG signals as a standardized reference database for this study. Herein, we report the use of multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis on human EEG signals derived from waking and different sleep stages, and show evidence that supports the use of multifractal methods. Next, we compare multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis to a previously published multifractal technique, wavelet transform modulus maxima, using EEG signals from waking and sleep, and demonstrate that multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis has lower indices of variability. Finally, we report a preliminary investigation into the use of multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis as a pattern classification technique on human EEG signals from waking and different sleep stages, and demonstrate its potential utility for automatic classification of different states of consciousness. Therefore, multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis may be a useful pattern classification technique to distinguish among different states of brain function.