EEG, temporal correlations, and avalanches.

Epileptiform activity in the EEG is frequently characterized by rhythmic, correlated patterns or synchronized bursts. Long-range temporal correlations (LRTC) are described by power law scaling of the autocorrelation function and have been observed in scalp and intracranial EEG recordings. Synchronous large-amplitude bursts (also called neuronal avalanches) have been observed in local field potentials both in vitro and in vivo. This article explores the presence of neuronal avalanches in scalp and intracranial EEG in the context of LRTC. Results indicate that both scalp and intracranial EEG show LRTC, with larger scaling exponents in scalp recordings than intracranial. A subset of analyzed recordings also show avalanche behavior, indicating that avalanches may be associated with LRTC. Artificial test signals reveal a linear relationship between the scaling exponent measured by detrended fluctuation analysis and the exponent of the avalanche size distribution. Analysis and evaluation of simulated data reveal that preprocessing of EEG (squaring the signal or applying a filter) affect the ability of detrended fluctuation analysis to reliably measure LRTC.