[Eeglablist] Is this what we see in the EEG?

[Евгений Машеров]

A provocative statement (intended for criticism, though throwing rotten apples and rotten eggs is not advisable)

When we look at an EEG, we overlook the more essential, seeing only the secondary. Beautiful graphic elements, easily recognizable by the eye, elegant sinusoids, so effectively analyzed by Fourier, are a manifestation not of brain activity, but of its inactivity. These are resting rhythms, idle rhythms, whether they manifest during a temporary shutdown of sensory input, like the occipital alpha rhythm, or the mu rhythm that disappears as soon as a hand is moved, or the delta rhythm when activity ceases during sleep, or the pathological delta rhythm in the perifocal zone of a tumor, where there is still nerve tissue, but it is no longer functional (and then there is alpha coma...). True brain activity manifests itself in the higher frequency range and over a very broad frequency band (which corresponds to the conclusions of information theory regarding bandwidth and information transmission intensity). However, its amplitude is small and its regularity is insufficient, so we limit ourselves to noting the presence of beta or gamma activity, admiring the beautiful oscillations easily identifiable by the eye.
I believe this is a challenge that requires the development of new methods of EEG analysis, not discarding existing ones, but exploring new ones (nonlinear? multidimensional? based on systems of orthogonal functions other than sinusoids?). The work on "1/f" that began in this community, after a fairly active start, has suddenly slowed down. Perhaps it should be intensified? But what if there are better ideas?

Your truly

Eugen Masherov