The local mean decomposition and its application to EEG perception data

Abstract

This paper describes the local mean decomposition (LMD), a new iterative approach to demodulating amplitude and frequency modulated signals. The new method decomposes such signals into a set of functions, each of which is the product of an envelope signal and a frequency modulated signal from which a time-varying instantaneous frequency can be derived. The LMD method can be used to analyse a wide variety of natural signals such as electrocardiograms, functional magnetic resonance imaging data, and earthquake data. The paper presents the results of applying LMD to a set of scalp electroencephalogram (EEG) visual perception data. The LMD instantaneous frequency and energy structure of the EEG is examined, and compared with results obtained using the spectrogram. The nature of visual perception is investigated by measuring the degree of EEG instantaneous phase concentration that occurs following stimulus onset over multiple trials. The analysis suggests that there is a statistically significant difference between the theta phase concentrations of the perception and no perception EEG data.