title: Long-range temporal correlations in the EEG bursts of human preterm babies.
abstract: The electrical activity in the very early human preterm brain, as recorded by scalp EEG, is mostly discontinuous and has bursts of high-frequency oscillatory activity nested within slow-wave depolarisations of high amplitude. The temporal organisation of the occurrence of these EEG bursts has not been previously investigated. We analysed the distribution of the EEG bursts in 11 very preterm (23-30 weeks gestational age) human babies through two estimates of the Hurst exponent. We found long-range temporal correlations (LRTCs) in the occurrence of these EEG bursts demonstrating that even in the very immature human brain, when the cerebral cortical structure is far from fully developed, there is non-trivial temporal structuring of electrical activity.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Mathematics and Physics in the Life Sciences and Experimental Biology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hartley
authors.forename: Luc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Berthouze
authors.forename: Sean R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Mathieson
authors.forename: Geraldine B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Boylan
authors.forename: Janet M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Rennie
authors.forename: Neil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Marlow
authors.forename: Simon F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Farmer
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013997:Time Factors