Short-time Fourier transform and embedding method for recurrence quantification analysis of EEG time series

Electroencephalography (EEG) allows recording of cortical activity at high temporal resolution. Creating features useful for the analysis of the EEG recording can be challenging. Here we introduce a new method of pre-processing the time-series for the analysis of the resting state and binary task classification using recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) and compare it with the existing state-of-the-art approach based on signal embedding. To reveal patterns that unfold brain dynamics, we present a new pipeline that does not rely on selection of embedding parameters for RQA. Instead of using EEG time-series signals directly, Short-term Fourier transform (STFT) is used to generate new time-series, based on the power spectra from sliding, overlapping windows. Recurrence plots are created in a standard way from embedded EEG signals, and the STFT vectors. The efficiency of RQA features extracted from such plots is compared in classification of EEG segments that correspond to open and closed eye conditions. In contrast to the common approaches to such analysis, no filtering into separate frequency bands was needed. Differences between the two representations of EEG signals are illustrated using histograms of RQA features and UMAP plots. Classification results at the 95.9% level were obtained using selected features for less than 10 electrodes.