The comparison of electroencephalograms recorded before and after electrical stunning of cattle

Electroencephalograms (EEGs) were recorded before and after 'head-only' electrical stunning of adult cattle. Epochs of 8·5 s duration derived from the pre-and the post-stun EEG signals were compared for differences in scale and frequency. The frequency structures of two selected epochs from the one animal were evaluated using the periodogram ordinates derived by calculating the Fast Fourier Transform. The comparison of the two pre-stun epochs indicated that, within the one animal, the pre-stun EEG signal had a consistent frequency pattern. Similarly, a comparison of two post-stun epochs indicated that the post-stun EEG signal also had a consistent frequency pattern. The comparison of pre- and post-stun epochs indicated a consistent increases in amplitude after stunning. Additionally, after stunning, there was an increase in the power of frequencies in the range 4-8 Hz and a decrease in the power of certain frequencies in the range 15-25 Hz. Although there was considerable animal-to-animal variation it was demonstrated that electric stunning produced definable changes in the EEG signal.