Spirituality and brain waves.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of Quran on a Persian-speaking Muslim. Volunteers listened to three different audio files (Verses from Sura 'Forqan' unconsciously; Arabic text unconsciously; Verses from Sura 'Fath' consciously). EEG signals were recorded and the changes in the relative power of theta and alpha band are considered an indicators of relaxation. The findings indicate that conscious listening to Holy Quran increases the relative theta power in most areas of the head, compared to the rest condition, and listening to Quran unconsciously increased relative theta power in the frontal and central lobes of the head significantly, compared to the rest condition. Also, listening to Quran consciously increases the relative alpha power in the frontal lobe, compared to the rest condition.

On the discrimination of patho-physiological states in epilepsy by means of dynamical measures.

In the present paper a number of techniques were applied to determine the effects of epileptic seizure on spontaneous ongoing EEG. The idea is that seizure represents transitions of an epileptic brain from its normal (chaotic) state to an abnormal (more ordered) state. Some nonlinear measures including correlation dimension, maximum Lyapunov exponent and wavelet entropy and a graphical tool, named recurrence plot, as well as a novel technique that collects some statistics of the state space organization were used to characterize interictal, preictal and ictal states and derivate a phase transition. The novelty of this work includes of introducing new types of indicators base upon some nonlinear features besides of proposing a new feature of point distribution in phase space. Our results show that (1) these three states are separable in 3-D feature space of nonlinear measures with a gradual decrease of their quantity in seizure evolution, (2) strong rhythmicity, which manifests in recurrence plots and recurrence quantification analysis measures, appears in dynamic while having entered into seizure and (3) different volumes of state space are occupied during each phase of epileptic disorder. The significance of the work is that this information is a step into the detection of a preictal state and consequently is helpful in the prediction and control of epileptic seizures.