title: Dynamics underlying spontaneous human alpha oscillations: a data-driven approach.
abstract: Although the cognitive and clinical correlates of spontaneous human alpha oscillations as recorded with electroencephalography (EEG) or magnetoencephalography (MEG) are well documented, the dynamics underlying these oscillations is still a matter of debate. This study proposes a data-driven method to reveal the dynamics of these oscillations. It demonstrates that spontaneous human alpha oscillations as recorded with MEG can be viewed as noise-perturbed damped harmonic oscillations. This provides evidence for the hypothesis that these oscillations reflect filtered noise and hence do not possess limit-cycle dynamics. To illustrate the use of the model, we apply it to two data-sets in which a decrease in alpha power can be observed across conditions. The associated differences in the estimated model parameters show that observed decreases in alpha power are associated with different kinds of changes in the dynamics. Thus, the model parameters are useful dynamical biomarkers for spontaneous human alpha oscillations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1081a, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands. r.hindriks@vu.nl
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hindriks
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bijma
authors.forename: B W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: van Dijk
authors.forename: Y D
authors.initials: YD
authors.lastname: van der Werf
authors.forename: E J W
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: van Someren
authors.forename: A W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: van der Vaart
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D000513:Alpha Rhythm / Q000502:physiology*; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000503:physiopathology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008959:Models, Neurological; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted