Stability, reliability and consistency of the compositions of brain oscillations

In the present experimental study, we examined the compositions of electroencephalographic (EEG) brain oscillations and their percent ratio in 12 subjects during resting conditions (closed and open eyes) and during the memory task (waiting, encoding and keeping-in-mind stages). The exact compositions of brain oscillations and their percent ratio were assessed by the probability-classification analysis of short-term EEG spectral patterns, which results in the probability-classification profile (PCP). Within sessions the PCPs are found to be stable, as reflected by a relatively low coefficient of variability, and between sessions the PCPs are highly reproducible. Finally, test–retest reliability of subject's PCPs shows a dependency on task, being higher for the memory task, and in particular for the encoding stage. It was suggested that these findings support and strengthen the superposition principle where integrative brain functions are manifested in the superposition of distributed multiple oscillations.