title: Interpretation of the Lempel-Ziv complexity measure in the context of biomedical signal analysis.
abstract: Lempel-Ziv complexity (LZ) and derived LZ algorithms have been extensively used to solve information theoretic problems such as coding and lossless data compression. In recent years, LZ has been widely used in biomedical applications to estimate the complexity of discrete-time signals. Despite its popularity as a complexity measure for biosignal analysis, the question of LZ interpretability and its relationship to other signal parameters and to other metrics has not been previously addressed. We have carried out an investigation aimed at gaining a better understanding of the LZ complexity itself, especially regarding its interpretability as a biomedical signal analysis technique. Our results indicate that LZ is particularly useful as a scalar metric to estimate the bandwidth of random processes and the harmonic variability in quasi-periodic signals.
authors.affiliation: Electronics Engineering Technology Department, Oregon Institute of Technology, Portland, OR 97006, USA. mateoaboy@ieee.org
authors.forename: Mateo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aboy
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hornero
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Abásolo
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Alvarez
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001698:Biomedical Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted