  We apply flicker-noise spectroscopy (FNS), a time series analysis method
operating on structure functions and power spectrum estimates, to study the
clinical electroencephalogram (EEG) signals recorded in children/adolescents
(11 to 14 years of age) with diagnosed schizophrenia-spectrum symptoms at the
National Center for Psychiatric Health (NCPH) of the Russian Academy of Medical
Sciences. The EEG signals for these subjects were compared with the signals for
a control sample of chronically depressed children/adolescents. The purpose of
the study is to look for diagnostic signs of subjects' susceptibility to
schizophrenia in the FNS parameters for specific electrodes and
cross-correlations between the signals simultaneously measured at different
points on the scalp. Our analysis of EEG signals from scalp-mounted electrodes
at locations F3 and F4, which are symmetrically positioned in the left and
right frontal areas of cerebral cortex, respectively, demonstrates an essential
role of frequency-phase synchronization, a phenomenon representing specific
correlations between the characteristic frequencies and phases of excitations
in the brain. We introduce quantitative measures of frequency-phase
synchronization and systematize the values of FNS parameters for the EEG data.
The comparison of our results with the medical diagnoses for 84 subjects
performed at NCPH makes it possible to group the EEG signals into 4 categories
corresponding to different risk levels of subjects' susceptibility to
schizophrenia. We suggest that the introduced quantitative characteristics and
classification of cross-correlations may be used for the diagnosis of
schizophrenia at the early stages of its development.
