Visible and non-visible EEG changes demonstrated by spectral parameter analysis

A change of the heart rate in patients with complete AV-block and externally controllable cardiac pace-makers was earlier shown to influence cerebral function, as measured by psychological tests. To determine whether this influence manifests itself in the EEG, 9 patients aged 43-83 years were examined, all having complete AV-block and externally controllable pace-makers. Their EEGs were recorded at different heart rates between 40 and 100/min at rest and during a mental arithmatic test. The EEG record was evaluated visually and analysed by means of Spectral Parameter Analysis (SPA), introduced by Zetterberg (1969). The changes in the spectral parameters in relation to the heart rates were analysed statistically, In several cases significant changes appeared but the interindividual variations were large. Certain typical patterns could, however, be observed and their importance as a measure of cerebral function due to changes in the cerebral blood flow are discussed. These EEG changes revealed through SPA did not correspond to any visually observable changes in the EEG records. Differences in the spectral parameters between rest and test situations were analysed. Some of the differences found could easily be observed by visual inspection of the EEG. The advantage with SPA was that the changes could be described both qualitatively and quantitavely because SPA separates the spectral properties of the signals into components corresponding to well-known components of the EEG signal.