Dynamical Features Of Human EEG Scale Systematically With Life Context

Abstract

We have previously shown that the complexity of human brain activity and the emergence and strength of alpha oscillation as measured by EEG scale dramatically with access to the features of modernization. Here we show that these features of the EEG, while correlated to one another are distinct in their origin and that while complexity is most strongly related to travel or geofootprint, energy of the alpha oscillation scales more systematically with fuel consumption. Finally, composite EEG scores representing the dominant principal component scale in remarkable lockstep with the dominant component of the features of modernization. This demonstrates that human brain dynamics, and therefore cognitive outcome, are profoundly and systematically tied to the context of life experience. Indeed the implication is that normal brain function is not absolute and can only be considered in relation to or conditional on the context in which it is embedded.