Dynamic Electroencephalograph Signal Analysis Using

Multiresolution Time Frequency

Abstract - A wavelet transformation is applied to electroencephalograph (EEG) records

from epileptic patients. The temporal sharpness associated with interictal spikes at
different resolutions is observed and two ways for representing the multiresolution
sharpness of the spikes are proposed.

Keywords- EEG, Multi-resolution, Wavelets, Epilepsy, Decomposition, Transients,

Spikes, Brain, Convolution.

1.Introduction:
The brain generates rhythmical potentials, which originate in the individual
neurons of the brain. Electroencephalograph (EEG) is a representation of the electrical
activity of brain. ( By writing on paper or display on CRT). In addition to the
characteristic electrographic bursts of abnormal activity that are recorded when epileptic
patients experience a seizure (ictal episode) , the electroencephalogram (EEG) of
epileptics will normally display isolated sharp transients or "spikes" in some locations of
the brain. These interictal spikes are a complementary source of information in the
diagnosis and localization of epilepsy.
In particular, when a prospective candidate for seizure surgery is studied with longterm video/EEG monitoring,
both the ictal (electrographic seizures) and interictal (spikes) manifestations of epilepsy
are scrutinized to determine the nature and, in some cases, the localization of a focus of
epilepsy. It is for this kind of scenario that an automatic or semiautomatic method for
interictal spike detection has been sought for several decades.
Numerous attempts have been made to define a reliable spike detection mechanism.
However, all of them have faced the lack of a specific characterization of the events to
detect. One of the best known descriptions for an interictal "spike" is offered by Chatrian
et al. [1]: " transient, clearly distinguished from background activity, with pointed peak at
conventional paper speeds and a duration from 20 to 70 msec...". This description,
however, is not specific enough to be implemented into a detection algorithm that will
isolate the spikes from all the other normal or artifactual components of an EEG record.
Some approaches have concentrated in measuring the "sharpness" of the EEG signal,
Temporal
which can be expected to soar in the "pointy peak"
of a spike. Walter [2] attempted the
Dependence
detection of spikes through analog computation of the second time derivative (sharpness)
of the EEG signals. Smith [3] attempted a similarEvaluation
form of detection on the digitized EEG
signal. His method, however required a minimum duration of the sharp transient to
qualify it as a spike. Although these methodsInterdependence
involve the duration of the transient in a
secondary way, they fundamentally consider "sharpness"
Analysis as a point property, dependent
only on the very immediate context of the time of analysis. More recently, an approach
has been proposed in which the temporal sharpness is measured in different "spans of
observation", involving different amounts of temporal context [4]. True spikes will have
significant sharpness at all of these different "spans". The promise shown by that
approach has encouraged us to use a wavelet transformation to evaluate the sharpness of
EEG signals at different levels of temporal resolution. We expect that, as in the previous
study mentioned above, the consistency of the sharpness displayed by the spikes across
different resolution levels will set them apart from other EEG transients. If this is the case
a new specification for interictal spikes, in terms of their characteristic multiresolution
sharpness, can be put forth.

2.Data Acquisition system:

Patient
Electrode

EEG
Machine
ADC

Computer

Raw EEG Data

Off-Line artifact
Removal
Artifact Free EEG
Data
Topographic
Mapping
Signal Processing
on selected
channels
Results Visualization

Fig. 1. Data Acquisition System

A block diagram of this system is presented in fig.1. An EEG machine (Medicaid

systems - Chandigarh) provides the amplification and an electrode configuration that is
commonly used for EEG recording (i.e. 10-20 system) to provide 8 channel of EEG
simultaneously for both referential and bipolar montages. Where each channel is the
voltage difference between an electrode and that immediately posterior. A focal event
gives rise to positive transients anterior to the focus and negative transient in channels
posterior to the focus. This phenomenon is known as phase reversal and is very useful in
localizing focal events. Recordings are made while the patient is awake but resting and
include periods of eyes open, eyes closed, and hyperventilation.

3. Wavelets:
When a signal is transformed into a representative set of wavelet coefficients, each
dilation represents a band-pass filtering of the input signal corresponding to some specific
scale which innately provides a useful mapping of important signal features at different
scales. This enables a more advanced analysis and understanding of the signal through a
more complete representation. Alternatively, this can be seen as a type of template
matching of important signal characteristics at different scales (dilations) while
maintaining the fundamental morphology of the wavelet.
There are many suitable wavelets which can be used such as those developed by Mallet,
Daubechies, and Morlet [5,6]. The particular wavelet function which was used here,
given below by Equation 1, is an offspring of Morlets wavelet.
(1)
In this case, the wavelet function (t) is admissible when = =
, and such that
the function in (1) is zero. Allowing the parameter of dilation, "a", to be inversely
proportional to the harmonic of interest this transformation can be accomplished through
a discrete convolution of the time varying signal with the wavelet function *(t/a). Note
that this requires that c=2 so that the dilations of the wavelet be a function of the
frequency
. This is relevant since the parameter 'a' is just a scale for dilation so that
establishing this as the sweep frequency is a valid and necessary step [7,8]. Ultimately,
the multiresolution transformation generates an alternative representation for interpreting
spikes through the progression of morphological variabilitys across many scales, which
distinguishes them from noise and background signals.
For a function to be considered for use as a wavelet it is required that the function be
admissible. This requires that:

(2)

where (w) is the Fourier transformation of (t), and Cg is the admissibility constant [9].
This constant is required to be finite to allow for inversion of the wavelet transformation.
Any function which satisfies this constraint can be called a mother wavelet and since Cg
is finite then the mean value of the mother wavelet in time is zero so that:

(3)
To generate the wavelet transform, W(b,a), of a signal, s(t), requires that the analyzing
wavelet be convolved with the signal as given in Equation 4 below.

(4)

Here, b the parameter of translation is responsible for localization in time and 'a' the
parameter of dilation is responsible for localization in frequency. This is accomplished
discretely by sampling the input with a period T at least two times larger than the highest
harmonic of interest in s(t) such that:

(5)
Finally, this can be rewritten as:
(6)
Thus, the wavelet must be convolved with the input signal by adjusting the parameter of
translation 'b' and adjusting the sweep frequency for each iteration (scale). For this
particular application the most suitable wavelet function has a shape which resembles the
fundamental morphology of an interictal spike.

4. Application of Wavelets to Epileptic Spike Detection:

The first step in applying the wavelet transformation of Equation 6 to the detection of
epileptic spikes was in defining the most suitable wavelet parameters. Initially, with =0
in Equation 1, a pseudo wavelet was constructed and tested for sensitivity to spikes
across many scales. These tests were performed on portions of signals recorded from the
brain of epileptic patients with implanted electrodes, such as the one shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 : EEG Segment with Spike

It was determined that the wavelet transformation could be adjusted for sensivity to
change through the damping parameter , and for localization in frequency through the
harmonic analyzing parameter c. Thus, for each iteration of the wavelet transformation
the damping function and the specific frequency of concern were varied.
The initial simulations involved varying different values of and c. The results which are
shown below in Figures 3 & 4 were examined and it was established, subjectively, that
the optimal values where c=6 and =3.5. As evidenced in the central traces of Figures 3
& 4 these values produced the most discernible output for the spike from Figure 2.

Figure 3 - Varying parameter

Figure 4 - Varying c parameter

The use of the pseudo wavelet in this preliminary stage is justified by its morphological
similarity with the true admissible wavelet, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5 - Pseudo and Admissible Wavelets

In addition, the values found for the parameters made the pseudo wavelet closely
approximate the admissible wavelet. Therefore, the rest of the study proceeded with the
use of the admissible wavelet.

5. Results:
Applying a wavelet decomposition that involved ten different frequencies (1/a), (from 1
Khz to 10 Khz), a two dimensional output was obtained from each EEG segment used as
input. The x axis of this output represented the sample number, i.e. time. The y axis of the
two dimensional output was associated with the different wavelets from the set that was
applied to the EEG data. So, the two dimensional output offered a representation of the
EEG signal similar to the "spectrogram" used in the analysis of speech signals, except for
that the decomposition is not based on sinusoidal components, but it refers to the ten
wavelet components used. Observation of these two-dimensional outputs confirmed that
epileptic spikes would have high outputs for a larger number of wavelets in the set. On
the other hand, background activity would normally display high outputs for the lower
frequency wavelets (wide wavelets) and transients of artifactual origin would not have
high output for many of the resolution levels employed. Since the narrower wavelets
would inherently yield a significantly lower output than the wider ones, the two
dimensional output was normalized so that the highest value resulting from each wavelet
dilation would be made 1.Figure 5 shows a 2-second EEG segment with a clear interictal
spike. Figure 7 displays its normalized wavelet decomposition.
Figure 8 shows another segment of EEG data with some spikes and other transients.
Figure 9 shows the corresponding two-dimensional output of the wavelet transform.

Figure 6 - EEG segment with spike

Figure 7 - Wavelet transformation of Figure 5

In it, the spikes show consistent large outputs throughout the wavelet set, i.e. they have
sharpness at several different resolutions. On the other hand, the transients in the second
half of the segment only yield a large output for some subsets of the wavelets, i.e., they
only have sharpness at certain resolutions. To summarize these differences and enable a
detection mechanism we first suggest the point-to-point multiplication of the results for
several wavelet dilations, so that only the features that are sharp at all of those resolution
levels will be represented by large product. Figure 9 illustrates this option for the
isolation of interictal events.

Figure 8 - Segment with spikes and other transients

Figure 9 Wavelet transformation of Figure 7

Figure 10 - Product of the wavelet coefficients for 3, 5 and 7 Khz(solid) and 3 and 5 Khz
only(dashed)
Another possibility that we propose is to use the outputs obtained at three different
resolution levels as the x, y and z coordinates in a parametric plot. In this way, only
features that have sharpness at all three of those resolution levels will result in large
orbits, away from the origin of the coordinate system. Initially, a spherical boundary can
be set around the origin to act as a threshold for features that may be interictal events.
This form of display is particularly interesting, since not only the farthest position
reached by an orbit, but also the specific trajectory could be used to classify features.
Figure 10 shows one such parametric plot, for the data in figure 7.

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Figure 11. Parametric plot of the wavelet coefficients at 3, 5 and 7 KHz

6. Conclusions:
Through this study we have found that a wavelet transformation is capable of separating a
time series, such as the EEG from an epileptic patient, according to the sharpness of the
signal at different temporal resolutions. We have also observed that interictal spikes
display significant sharpness at several resolution levels, while other artifactual transients
and background features normally do not show consistent sharpness at the resolution
levels chosen. This new characterization of the spike in the frame of multiresolution
analysis may be used to develop a detection signal derived from the output of the wavelet
transformation as a product of the outputs at several resolution levels or using these as
coordinates for a parametric plot.

7. References:
[1] G. Chatrian et al., "A glossary of terms most commonly used by clinical
electroencephalographers", Electroenceph. and Clin. Neurophysiol., 1994, 37:538-548..
[2] D. Walter et al., "Semiautomatic quantification of sharpness of EEG phenomena".
IEEE Trans. on Biomedical Engineering, 3, Vol. BME-20, pp. 53-54.
[3] J. Smith, "Automatic Analysis and detection of EEG Spikes", IEEE Trans. on
Biomedical Engineering, 1999, Vol. BME-21, pp. 1-7.
[4] A. Barreto et al., "Intraoperative Focus Localization System based Spatio-Temporal
ECoG Analysis", Proc. XV Annual Intl. Conf. of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and
Biology Society, October, 2003.
[5] Lin-Sen Pon, Interictal Spike Analysis Using Stochstic Point Process,Proceedings
of the International conference, IEEE 2003.
[6] Susumo Date, A Grid Application For An Evaluation Of Brain Function Using ICA
Proceedings of the International conference, IEEE - 2002 .

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[7] Ta-Hasin Li, Detection of Cognitive Binding During Ambiguous Figure,

Proceedings of the International conference, IEEE 2000.
[8] Alison A. Dingle, Tichard D. Jones and others "A multistage system to detect
epileptiform activity in the EEG" IEEE transaction on biomedical engineering, vol.40,
no.12, December 2003.
[9] Daubechies, Ingred. Ten Lectures on Wavelets SIAM (Society for Industrial and
Applied Mathematics), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1992.
[10] S. Mallat, "A Theory for Multiresolution Signal Decomposition: The Wavelet
Representation", IEEE Trans. on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol. 14,
pp710-732, July 1992.
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