The Use of Cross-Correlation in the Display of Paroxysmal Events in the EEG: A Preliminary Report

Abstract

EEG correlates of epileptic seizures show extremely varied morphological, temporal and topographical patterns, depending on the type of seizures as well as on a number of other parameters, especially age. Visual analysis of the EEG recordings is hampered by technical limitations of the writing systems, especially of paper speed. Moreover, the structural, temporal and topographical complexities of these paroxysmal EEG correlates are of such magnitude as to make adequate visual analysis virtually impossible. Such an analysis thus usually remains limited to the classification of the recorded patterns into one of a number of prototypical EEG seizure patterns (Dummermuth 1972) (localized-general, irregular-regular, asymmetric-symmetric, rhythmic-nonrhythmic) without sufficient consideration of the complexity of the paroxysmal changes, especially regarding their dynamic properties in the temporal and topographical domain.