Nonlinear features of surface EEG showing systematic brain signal adaptations with muscle force and fatigue

Nonlinear dynamics has been introduced to the analysis of biological data and increasingly recognized to be functionally relevant. The purpose of this study was to examine chaotic properties of human scalp EEG signals associated with voluntary motor tasks using the largest Lyapunov exponent (L1). 64-channel scalp EEG data were recorded from eight healthy subjects in two tasks: (1) intermittent handgrip contractions at 20, 40, 60, and 80% of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) with 20 trials at each level. No significant fatigue were induced; (2) intermittent handgrip MVCs (100 trials) that resulted in significant fatigue. The L1 values of all EEG channels were calculated in each trial first then averaged across the 20 trials at each force level (Task 1) or over each of the 5-trial blocks (Task 2) before the group means were obtained. A multivariate statistical model was used to examine the effect of force and fatigue on L1. L1 values were greater with higher force (Task 1), and decreased significantly with fatigue (Task 2). The L1 of the EEG signals changes systematically and correlates significantly with muscle force and fatigue. The results suggest that nonlinear chaotic index L1 may serve as a quantitative measure for motor control-related cortical signal adaptations.