[EEG mapping during a visuo-spatial task. Averaged maps and group statistics]

Twenty young volunteers (10 men, 10 women), righthanded, students, have been recorded in EEG cartography in different situations. We have compared the quantified EEGs when the subjects were resting, eyes closed and later, eyes opened, looking at a cartoon. The EEGs were quantified by spectral Fourier analysis and submitted to data reduction. Ten spectral parameters were computed, yielding 51 variables allowing computations and drawings of 90 EEG maps. Mean parameters, mean variables, averaged EEG maps have been computed for the entire group, between sub-groups, between hemispheres. Non-parametric permutation Fisher tests have been applied for statistical comparisons and statistical validations of the EEG maps computed between subjects. The activation of EEG tracings produced by the opening of the eyes were caracterized topographically by: mean alpha frequencies increased over temporal and rolandic areas; mean alpha amplitudes in microV divided by a factor 3 for occipital areas but unchanged in topography; mean relative amplitudes divided by a factor 2 but with a topography being more parietal than occipital for the alpha rhythm; a resonance coefficient greater over the left parietal than the right (alpha more regular), whereas it was greater over the right occipital than the left during the resting condition. Statistically for the whole group, the left hemisphere, recorded after the right, is more 'activated' in the eyes closed situation. During visual attention, the left hemisphere is less activated than the right.