Recurrence plot structures reflect motor-related EEG pattern

Abstract

Detection and classification of motor-related brain patterns from non-invasive electroencephalograms (EEGs) is challenging due to their non-stationarity and low signal-to-noise ratio and requires using advanced mathematical approaches. Traditionally applied methods such as time-frequency analysis and spatial filtering allow to quantify the main attribute of the motor-related brain activity – contralateral desynchronization of mu-band oscillations (8-13 Hz) in sensorimotor cortex – by measuring EEG signal’s amplitude, power spectral density, location etc. However, these features suffer from strong inter- and intra-subject variability. So, special attention is paid to the finding of stable features. In present paper, we investigate application of the recurrence plots – robust mathematical tool for nonstationary data analysis – to explore properties of motor-related EEG samples. Our goal is to show that recurrence plots are sensitive to the changes in brain activity accessed from noninvasive EEG recordings and may provide us a new context for interpretation of motor-related pattern in EEG.