Visual evaluation and computer analysis of the EEG--a comparison.

Spectral parameter analysis (SPA) of the EEG provides a description of the distribution of spectral power in the EEG signal in the form of a rational spectrum with not more than 8 parameters. The spectrum is divided into 1-3 components described by frequency and power parameters: bandwidth (delta), peak frequency (f) and power (G). These spectral parameters are determined with the aid of a computer. The character of the EEG signal decides whether 1, 2 or 3 components (delta, alpha, beta) are needed to describe the spectrum. To test its practical value, the result of SPA was compared with that of ordinary visual evaluation of the EEG of 65 healthy men between the ages of 18 and 22 years. 20 sec sections from different leads were analysed and evaluated visually. Each EEG section was graded according to the amount of visually evaluated slow activity (VESA). To investigate the relation between the degree of VESA and the SPA result, statistical calculations (variance and regression analyses) were carried out, both for single SPA parameters and for the general type of spectrum, i.e., the number of components composing the spectrum. The SPA results from sections with artefacts were treated separately and compared statistically with results from artefact-free sections. In records with a high degree of VESA, all the leads analysed showed a tendency to have a power spectrum of low order, i.e., with few components. In most leads there was a linear regression between the degree of VESA and the bandwidth and power of the delta and alpha components. In several cases this relation was an expression of a significant linear change of the SPA parameter as a function of the degree of VESA. On the other hand the parameters of the beta component showed no relation to the degree of VESA. It was found that muscle activity could influence any spectral component thereby providing it with a strongly increased bandwidth. This is probably due to the fact that muscle activity resembles white noise in this particular frequency range. Low frequency artefacts affected only the delta component the bandwidth of which was significantly smaller than in the artefact-free sections.