Alcoholism-related alterations in spectrum, coherence, and phase synchrony of topical electroencephalogram

The objective of present work was to assess differences in spectrum, coherence, and phase synchrony of topical electroencephalogram (EEG) between alcohol-dependent individuals and healthy participants. Surface currents were mitigated by a common average spatial filter. Parametric spectral and coherence estimates obtained for consecutive 0.5s-long EEG fragments were generally lower for alcoholics than for controls while evaluated for low EEG rhythms. Phase synchrony computed for 2.34s-long overlapping EEG fragments was lower for alcoholics than for controls while evaluated in α(2) and β(1) rhythms and for specific electrode pairs. Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance evaluated these alterations as statistically significant.