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The Algorithmic Complexity Of Neural Spike Trains Increases During Focal Seizures, P. E. Rapp, I. D. Zimmerman, E. P. Vining, N. Cohn, Alfonso M. Albano, M. A. Jimenez Montano

Physics Faculty Research and Scholarship

The interspike interval spike trains of spontaneously active cortical neurons can display nonrandom internal structure. The degree of nonrandom structure can be quantified and was found to decrease during focal epileptic seizures. Greater statistical discrimination between the two physiological conditions (normal vs seizure) was obtained with,measurements of context-free grammar complexity than by measures of the distribution of the interspike intervals such as the mean interval, its standard deviation, skewness, or kurtosis. An examination of fixed epoch data sets showed that two factors contribute to the complexity: the firing rate and the internal structure of the spike train. However, calculations with …