- Email: [email protected]
Rhythmic EEG activities and cortical functioning
141
Psychology 14 (1982) 141-143 North-Holland Publishing Company
Bmlogical
BOOK REVIEW
G. PFURTSCHELLER, P. BUSER, F.H. LOPES DA SILVA PETSCHE (Eds.), Rhythmic EEG Activities and Cortical Functioning North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1980, pp. 314) Df. 100.
and H. (Elsevier
This volume is the proceedings of a symposium on ‘Event Related Changes in Cortical Rhythmic Activities’ held in Austria in September 1979. It contains 19 papers divided into five sections. In recent years publications of research on EEG and behaviour have been mainly concerned with evoked potentials. This book discusses the more fashionable description of ‘event related potentials’ in which both transient, classical, evoked potentials, and longer lasting changes in activity are studied and related. It represents a on-going, ‘spontaneous’, welcome return of interest in the background EEG. The first section, ‘Origin of EEG Rhythms’ contains three papers describing animal studies of the genesis of EEG activity. The first by H. Petsche and colleagues describes recent aspects of Professor Petsche’s ongoing studies aimed at deriving ‘electroarchitectonic’ maps. For the rabbit striate area, to which this work is confined, these workers present evidence for differing modes of generation of spontaneous and evoked potentials. The second paper by Skinner and King describes the technique and results of studies of slow potential changes in neurons in cat frontal cortex related to stress inducing stimulus paradigms. The authors review evidence that these slow potentials signal situations in which coronary artery occlusion may lead to ventricular fibrillation. Biochemical correlates of the slow potentials may aid the ‘search for a biochemical intervention in the cerebral defense mechanism that will prevent the consequences of myocardial ischemia and severe psychological stress’. The third paper in this section is by Lopes da Silva and colleagues and describes further progress in his studies of the genesis of alpha rhythm in the dog. By using a partial coherence analysis, these workers were able to assess the relative influence of different thalamic neuclei on the intra-cortical spread of alpha activity. The second section is entitled ‘EEG Rhythms in Behaviour Situations’ and also contains three papers. The first by Bouyer and colleagues is concerned with studies in the cat based on the hypotheses that the well-known rhythmic spindles recorded from this animal are not necessarily sleep spindless, may accompany specific behavioural situations not related to sleep, and may be 030 l-05 11/82/0000-0000/$02.75
0 1982 North-Holland
homologous to some human scalp recorded rhythms. The third paper by Arnolds and colleagues describes behaviour correlates of the hypocampal EEG activity recorded from depth electrodes in a single epileptic patient. The second paper in this section will be of particular interest to psychophysiologists. In it Yingling discusses the controversy concerning the relevance of motor activity to EEG studies of hemisphere asymmetry of function and cognition. He regards the separation of task characteristics into cognitive and motor components as ‘artifical and misleading’ and argues that purely perceptual or cognitive tasks will have much less of an effect than those coupled to overt behaviours. Thus tasks involving active movements will tend to produce more alpha suppression because a larger proportion of brain is involved in coupling the lateralised cognitive activities to cortical mechanisms for motor activity. In the third section there are six papers under the title ‘Movement-related Changes of EEG Rhythms’. The first by Kuhlman, the second by Schoppenherst et al., the third by Deecke and the fifth by Pfurtscheller and Aranibar are all concerned with aspects of p rhythms. The first two of these illustrate the power of spectral analysis techniques to discriminate between 1-1rhythm and (Y rhythm. They all describe the relationship between p rhythm and sensorimotor activity. The Pfurtscheller paper describes in some detail developments of his studies of the time course of desynchronisation following hand movement. The fourth paper by Pocock describes his studies of alpha rhythm topography using a simple motor task to control subjects’ state of arousal. He shows how the often reported frontal phase lead of alpha activity is likely to be an artefact of interpretation due to spatial aliasing. The last paper in this section is by Papakostopoulos and colleagues and describes cortico-graphic studies of sensorimotor activity. As with many papers from this group, it contains an inherent warning of the dangers of interpreting the generation of EEG rhythms from scalp recordings alone. The next section on ‘Changes of EEG Rhythms Parallel to Event-related Potentials’ contains six papers. The first by Parvin et al. considers the hypothesis that an evokedd response is a response of spontaneous activity rather than something additive to background activity. The second by Storm van Leeuwen and co-workers describes intra-cerebral recordings related to various stimulus response paradigms. The third by Gronewald and colleagues examines the alpha attenuation response during the inter-stimulus interval of a CNV paradigm and concludes that it shows a spatio-temporal characteristic differing from that of the CNV. The fourth paper in this section by Tatsuno and colleagues looks at alpha blocking to flash stimulation with particular reference to a transient alpha augmentation that occurs as part of the recovery from blocking. This is followed by a paper by Blom in which the EEG response to a change in frequency of a continous tone is compared with that due to a tone burst.
Book review
143
The final paper in this section is a thought provoking discussion by Mulholland and Goodman about the effect of non-stationary characteristics of the spontaneous EEG on the statistical characteristics of both evoked potentials and CYrhythm responses. They describe how EEG and behaviour relationships became more consistent when the presentation of stimuli are controlled by particular background activity parameters. The final section on ‘EEG Rhythms during Internal Experiences’ contains one paper by Lehmann and Koukkou. This explores experimental procedures for relating the on-going EEG to introspectively recognised subjective states. Taken as a whole, this book has two things to recommend it. Firstly, it is not just a regurgitation of material published elsewhere as so many symposia often are. It is a genuine account of the latest development of each author’s work. Second, it shows many facets of relationship between spontaneous activity and evoked potentials that suggest a return of research interest in the former. Although much of the material is highly specialised, I regard it as a useful book for the psycho-physiologist interested in, and wanting to, widen his or her knowledge of EEG research. The theoretical discussions, particularly those by Yingling, by Parvin et al. and by Mulholland and Goodman show that there is plenty of opportunity for strengthening EEG/behaviour relationships by appropriately defining behaviour or by a change of experimental technique or data analysis. As always, those studies able to make use of the greater resolution of intra-cerebral or corticographic recording inherently warn us to be careful in making extrapolations about EEG generation from scalp recordings alone. John SHAW Graylingwell Hospital
Psychology 14 (1982) 141-143 North-Holland Publishing Company
Bmlogical
BOOK REVIEW
G. PFURTSCHELLER, P. BUSER, F.H. LOPES DA SILVA PETSCHE (Eds.), Rhythmic EEG Activities and Cortical Functioning North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1980, pp. 314) Df. 100.
and H. (Elsevier
This volume is the proceedings of a symposium on ‘Event Related Changes in Cortical Rhythmic Activities’ held in Austria in September 1979. It contains 19 papers divided into five sections. In recent years publications of research on EEG and behaviour have been mainly concerned with evoked potentials. This book discusses the more fashionable description of ‘event related potentials’ in which both transient, classical, evoked potentials, and longer lasting changes in activity are studied and related. It represents a on-going, ‘spontaneous’, welcome return of interest in the background EEG. The first section, ‘Origin of EEG Rhythms’ contains three papers describing animal studies of the genesis of EEG activity. The first by H. Petsche and colleagues describes recent aspects of Professor Petsche’s ongoing studies aimed at deriving ‘electroarchitectonic’ maps. For the rabbit striate area, to which this work is confined, these workers present evidence for differing modes of generation of spontaneous and evoked potentials. The second paper by Skinner and King describes the technique and results of studies of slow potential changes in neurons in cat frontal cortex related to stress inducing stimulus paradigms. The authors review evidence that these slow potentials signal situations in which coronary artery occlusion may lead to ventricular fibrillation. Biochemical correlates of the slow potentials may aid the ‘search for a biochemical intervention in the cerebral defense mechanism that will prevent the consequences of myocardial ischemia and severe psychological stress’. The third paper in this section is by Lopes da Silva and colleagues and describes further progress in his studies of the genesis of alpha rhythm in the dog. By using a partial coherence analysis, these workers were able to assess the relative influence of different thalamic neuclei on the intra-cortical spread of alpha activity. The second section is entitled ‘EEG Rhythms in Behaviour Situations’ and also contains three papers. The first by Bouyer and colleagues is concerned with studies in the cat based on the hypotheses that the well-known rhythmic spindles recorded from this animal are not necessarily sleep spindless, may accompany specific behavioural situations not related to sleep, and may be 030 l-05 11/82/0000-0000/$02.75
0 1982 North-Holland
homologous to some human scalp recorded rhythms. The third paper by Arnolds and colleagues describes behaviour correlates of the hypocampal EEG activity recorded from depth electrodes in a single epileptic patient. The second paper in this section will be of particular interest to psychophysiologists. In it Yingling discusses the controversy concerning the relevance of motor activity to EEG studies of hemisphere asymmetry of function and cognition. He regards the separation of task characteristics into cognitive and motor components as ‘artifical and misleading’ and argues that purely perceptual or cognitive tasks will have much less of an effect than those coupled to overt behaviours. Thus tasks involving active movements will tend to produce more alpha suppression because a larger proportion of brain is involved in coupling the lateralised cognitive activities to cortical mechanisms for motor activity. In the third section there are six papers under the title ‘Movement-related Changes of EEG Rhythms’. The first by Kuhlman, the second by Schoppenherst et al., the third by Deecke and the fifth by Pfurtscheller and Aranibar are all concerned with aspects of p rhythms. The first two of these illustrate the power of spectral analysis techniques to discriminate between 1-1rhythm and (Y rhythm. They all describe the relationship between p rhythm and sensorimotor activity. The Pfurtscheller paper describes in some detail developments of his studies of the time course of desynchronisation following hand movement. The fourth paper by Pocock describes his studies of alpha rhythm topography using a simple motor task to control subjects’ state of arousal. He shows how the often reported frontal phase lead of alpha activity is likely to be an artefact of interpretation due to spatial aliasing. The last paper in this section is by Papakostopoulos and colleagues and describes cortico-graphic studies of sensorimotor activity. As with many papers from this group, it contains an inherent warning of the dangers of interpreting the generation of EEG rhythms from scalp recordings alone. The next section on ‘Changes of EEG Rhythms Parallel to Event-related Potentials’ contains six papers. The first by Parvin et al. considers the hypothesis that an evokedd response is a response of spontaneous activity rather than something additive to background activity. The second by Storm van Leeuwen and co-workers describes intra-cerebral recordings related to various stimulus response paradigms. The third by Gronewald and colleagues examines the alpha attenuation response during the inter-stimulus interval of a CNV paradigm and concludes that it shows a spatio-temporal characteristic differing from that of the CNV. The fourth paper in this section by Tatsuno and colleagues looks at alpha blocking to flash stimulation with particular reference to a transient alpha augmentation that occurs as part of the recovery from blocking. This is followed by a paper by Blom in which the EEG response to a change in frequency of a continous tone is compared with that due to a tone burst.
Book review
143
The final paper in this section is a thought provoking discussion by Mulholland and Goodman about the effect of non-stationary characteristics of the spontaneous EEG on the statistical characteristics of both evoked potentials and CYrhythm responses. They describe how EEG and behaviour relationships became more consistent when the presentation of stimuli are controlled by particular background activity parameters. The final section on ‘EEG Rhythms during Internal Experiences’ contains one paper by Lehmann and Koukkou. This explores experimental procedures for relating the on-going EEG to introspectively recognised subjective states. Taken as a whole, this book has two things to recommend it. Firstly, it is not just a regurgitation of material published elsewhere as so many symposia often are. It is a genuine account of the latest development of each author’s work. Second, it shows many facets of relationship between spontaneous activity and evoked potentials that suggest a return of research interest in the former. Although much of the material is highly specialised, I regard it as a useful book for the psycho-physiologist interested in, and wanting to, widen his or her knowledge of EEG research. The theoretical discussions, particularly those by Yingling, by Parvin et al. and by Mulholland and Goodman show that there is plenty of opportunity for strengthening EEG/behaviour relationships by appropriately defining behaviour or by a change of experimental technique or data analysis. As always, those studies able to make use of the greater resolution of intra-cerebral or corticographic recording inherently warn us to be careful in making extrapolations about EEG generation from scalp recordings alone. John SHAW Graylingwell Hospital