Automated detection of paroxysmal gamma waves in meditation EEG

Meditation is a fascinating topic, yet has received limited attention in the neuroscience and signal processing community so far. A few studies have investigated electroencephalograms (EEG) recorded during meditation. Strong EEG activity has been observed in the left temporal lobe of meditators. Meditators exhibit more paroxysmal gamma waves (PGWs) in active regions of the brain. In this paper, a method is proposed to automatically detect PGWs from meditation EEG. The proposed algorithm is able to identify multiple sources in the brain that generate PGWs, and the sources associated with different types of PGWs can be distinguished. The effectiveness of the proposed method is assessed on 3 subjects possessing different degrees of expertise in practicing a yoga type meditation known as Bhramari Pranayama.