I)

Epileptiform EEG analysiswith phaseportraits

lmproved by eigen projectlon

Mahmood Na, Rudolf N de Ma and Cabukovski Vb

a Regional Departmentof Clinical Neurophysiotogy,Charing Cross Hospital, Charing Cross & Westminister
Medical School, lnndon W6 8RF, England.

b Instituteof Informatics,Universityof Skopje,Skopje,Macedonia-

The fundamental propenies ofa strangeattractor are geometric, revealing the stretching and folding of
tie signal trajectories when phase portraits are drawn with sample values. Nonstationarity of EEG and
its high dimension usually lead to a smudged phase portrait. Successivedata overlap previous data
resulting in a featureless patch. We show here that projecting the EEG fajectory on orthogonal
eigenplanesusing eigen decompositionand plotting phase portraits with the extract€d data that are in
the first eigenplane, lead to clearer phase portraits. The phase portraits of eigen projections divulge a
distinct representation of the EEG fajectory. The method extracts pattern vectors causing data
compression.Negligible informationis lost despitethe considerationof only the frst eigenplane.

1. Introduction

Babloyantz [1] mnfirmed that EEG signals are of low dimensional deterministic type. We fomd that we coolr
model the EEG by a simple nonlinear expressionrelated to the logistic equation, establishing that EEG may harbour a
strange attractor. We confimred [2,3] a fractal contribution to epileptic discharges,but were hindered in our firfu
studies becauseof the lack of practical measures.We applied several methods of dimension measurementsffil
concluded that most reasonable measure of them all is the little lnown Higuchi graph method both in term-r f
computation time and sample size [4,51. Unfortunately there is an inherent limitation that dimensionsabove a \E-hE
of two cannotbe measured.These limitations on having a proper quantitative measue led us to look for other form-sir
data representationsuch as a phaseportrait which is the image of an attractor on a plane, the orbits of a chaotic s)'sm.
showing stretchingand folding. An enormousamountof informationaboutan epilepticdischargecan be extractedh
studying the nonlinearbehaviourof the rajectory as it traversesthrough unstableand stablemanifoldsgetting into E
variety of tanglesin the process.
Lil
Plotting phase ponraits continuously has the drawbackthat the successivedata tend to smudge the portrait in tu
caseof signalswith high dimension such as EEG, renderingthe portrait uselessfor interpretation.We demonstrae": I
in our previous presentations that multiple phase portmits of short sectionsof epileptiform EEG displayed alomg tr
with Higuchi graph dimensions clearly revealed how the fractal structure and the dimension behavedjust before s.I (
1o
epileptic dischargeand during it. Unfortunately this method would not provide a global phaseportrait as required frr
analysingnonlinear chaotic signalslike EEG. There were severalpublications,e.g [1], showingphaseportraits ct rm
EEG with interpretationslimited to suchas "/essunstable" ot "mare unstable"without studyingixed points,limr il
cycles or unstablesteady states which phaseportraits reveal but which cannot be identified owing to the smudging
effect.
This presentation introduces a processwhich allows one for the lrst time to draw meaningful phase portraits cn
EEG. By the application of a combination of matrix algebra and fractal geometry as describedhere, we have studbl
the dynamicsof the attractorof epileptiformEEG. We foundthat after applying the Karhunen-kteveexpansion(KJE
to EEG data and projecting tie data on the fust eigenplane,the phase portraits drawn with these data produced a
cleareranda uniquerepresenBtive image.

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 2. Method

Any set ofEEG trajectory data may be converted into a vector spaceby ernbeddingthe data into an n dimension
space [6] forming a data matrix creating a vector space. To form a data matrix with sampled EEG data, an
embeddingdimension,n, was frst chosenwhich shouldbe large enoughto avoid singularities,but not too large to
causecontaminationby noise [7]. Usuallya chosenvaluesbouldbe n > 2D (D is tle actualEEG signaldimension).
Each row vector was then createdby using the expressionbelow:

(d <i>ldt* i t 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .+. .td(

, - ir l, ) (l )

wherei = 0, 1, 2, .....N-1; N = total numberof vectors;t = time delay; d(i) = datasamples.

The time delay, t, may be chosenarbitrarily as it seemsto have little effecl The EEG data matrix would then appear
asbelow:

( dg d 1 o + r 1 ......................d ( o + ( ,- t) r ) )
I d r Dd o + r t.......................d ( t+ ( n - t) r) I
Gcf .{=l I (2)
id
1 """""""""""""""""""' : """"' l
au [d < r v- r ldr t r+ r l + r ; . . . . . . . . d11r
- r) + ( , - D . :)l
F[
EM
ff the rank of matrix A is r, it can be shown that
kEt
@
-t si\Y;r (3)
.1=)

rrhere Xi and Y; are orthonormal eigenvectorsof matrices AAT and ATA respectively.The matrices X;Y1T are called
l! s{E sru c_&enplanes or singularplanes.The projectionof the datamatrix on the lrst eigenplaneis given by
thil'Nt|tf,[
tGsr in0'ffi (4)
Fnfection on first plane= (hrst singularvalue)X1Y1T
ilsnis d
1A n:rms d hailed discussionson the calculationsof the parametersusing iterativemethodsaregiven in [8].
hr f f i The first and tie largest singular value Si is derived from the relation
fr fwmrrff
bx gmaN@L
E+arx2r (s)
cG@mt W
dnE rorm
Otber projections may be found by using different singular values in equation (4). Separatingvarious componenlsin
lh *ay results in a simpler phaseportrait. Each eigenplanepossessescomponentsof the factorisedsignal which are
t@.rD0llu Ithrrty indspendentof those in other eigenplanes. The data obtained by this operationare then usedto draw phase
lail'nM[l
mnraits. The technique removes irrelevant information resulting from artefacts and noise and extracLs
fpwt pattern vectors effecting maximum data compression.The data removed would precipitat€ in some
lF hr projectionshaving no relationsto or influenceon the data residingin the first projection.Negligibleinformation
I
h in spiteof the considerationof only tie fkst plane.As it is a computationthat usesa methodof linear mapping'
mlinear characteristicssuch as fractal dimension are not affected.

5?5
ned by the removal
t ts'o sets of data

r ryoximately 4-5

T(d T ) = 6

if -->
ilk falienl
FM
lamfll
I
5. References

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[2] Rudolf NdeM and Mahmood
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Fractal Representationof the Epileptiform
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P{rrrru l '!ffillffililt
'
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[6] packard NH, Crutchheld JP, Fanner
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[8lCohenA.BiomedicalSignalProcessing,Volumell.Raton,Florida:CRChessInc,1986:6t*F+

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