The Electroencephalogram and the Adaptive Autoregressive Model: Theory and Applications

ii iii iv v PREFACE The human species as conscious creatures seem to have something special, namely a particular organ-the brain-which can connect matter (physical entity) and mind (purely non-physical) to each other in both directions. For example, humans can assign a meaning to a physical entity; and they can also transform ideas into facts of the physical world. Through the brain, humans seem to be a kind of transformer between both worlds. However, a lot of mechanisms involved in this transformation have not been illuminated, yet. The field of computer science (with its implications from information theory, neural networks and the discussion about artificial intelligence) and biomedical engineering (with in vivo measurements of body reactions) can contribute to solving the unanswered questions in neuroscience. Especially the EEG, as a completely non-invasive technique, can be easily applied in real world situations of humans. Moreover, it can give an image of the whole brain, not only parts of it. For these reasons, EEG is a well-suited method for analyzing the functions of the human brain in real world situations. The English language, which I chose for this work, is not my native language. Despite extensive proofreading, mistakes as well as 'false friends' are probably not completely eliminated. I hope this does not constrain the understanding of the meaning of this work. and all other co-workers.