COMBINING METHODS OF FREQUENCY FILTERING AND NONLINEAR ANALYSIS FOR SOMNOLOGICAL STUDY OF EEG SIGNALS

Aim - combined use of frequency and nonlinear analysis methods for obtaining hypnograms by analyzing electroencephalographic (EEG) signals during somnological studies. Methods. Frequency filtering methods were used for preliminary treatment of EEG signals before the following nonlinear analysis. As non-linear methods of analysis we used fractal methods of deterministic chaos, such as Hurst’s method of the normalized amplitude, approximate entropy method, calculation of the correlation integral by Grassberger and Procaccia’s method. For the possibility of applying the last two methods we used quasi phase space recovery method according to the Taken’s theorem. As a result of non-linear analysis we obtained hypnograms reflecting the transition between the stages of sleep in patients undergoing somnological examination. To assess the reliability of the results, they were compared to the hypnograms obtained by the classical method based on the rules of Rehchaffen and Keyls. Also the problems associated with the occurrence of various types of interference were considered and methods for reducing their influence on the final results were suggested. Results. We can conclude that using these methods with appropriate selection of the parameters, employing the necessary normalization of raw data, and averaging the results allow us to obtain hypnogram having a full match of defined phases of sleep for about half of the periods recorded by EEG. To obtain these results it is sufficient to use only one channel of EEG recording.