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Experimental evidence for a power law in electroencephalographic $α$-wave dynamics

Y. Georgelin·L. Poupard·R. Sartene·J. C. Wallet
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Abstract

We perform an experimental study of the time behavior of the $α$-wave events occuring in human electroencephalographic signals. We find that the fraction of the time spent in an $α$-burst of time size $τ$ exhibits a scaling behavior as a function of $τ$. The corresponding exponent is equal to 1.75$\pm$0.13. We therefore point out the existence of a new power law appearing in physiology. Furhtermore, we show that our experimental result may have a possible explanation within a class of Self-Organized Critical (SOC) models recently proposed by Boettcher and Paczuski. In particular, one of these models, when properly re-interpreted, seems to be consistent both with our result and a commonly accepted physiological description of the possible origin of $α$-wave events.

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Y. Georgelin, L. Poupard, R. Sartene, J. C. Wallet. 1998-03-31. Experimental evidence for a power law in electroencephalographic $α$-wave dynamics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510051008

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