Study of the EEG phenomenon of high-frequency bursts in the neocortical electrical activity of dogs in the process of alimentary instrumental learning.

We studied the electroencephalographic (EEG) phenomenon of high-frequency (HF) bursts (within the limits of 60-170 cycle, 70-80 microV) in the electrical activity (EA) of the brain (1-200 Hz) of dogs in the process of alimentary instrumental conditioning. These bursts appeared at the stage of generalization in a number of neocortical areas in the interstimulus intervals at the background EA, which was at lower amplitudes (10-40 microV). Application of novel strategies developed by us to the primary analysis of EA realization (in particular, introduction of inhomogeneity factor and activation index) enabled estimation the amplitude-frequency inhomogeneity of EA, namely, HF bursts. The regional peculiarities of HF bursts were revealed by means of the technique, developed by us, that was based on expansion of the EA variations into a system of half-waves and construction of distribution maps on the basis of their parameters. The presented data verify our earlier findings obtained with the use of other techniques (fast Fourier transform analysis and factor analysis). These data testify to differential participation of cortical areas (even those that are within 3-5 mm of each other) in the spatiotemporal organization of potentials that is characteristic for a given learning paradigm.