DOI: 10.3390/bioengineering13111275 ISSN: 2306-5354

Neural State Geometry: Unifying Amplitude Landscapes, Coherency Geometry and Information Geometry for EEG State Estimation

Christopher G. Batterton, Mahonri W. Owen, Jemma L. König, Ryan J. Manchester, Dana N. Abusaleh, Simeon B. Ensing, Craig A. Shepherd, Mitchell A. Head

Brain-state engineering requires measurement and modulation through interpretable, physics-informed coordinates of EEG state structure, change and intervention response. Applications include cognitive fatigue monitoring, neuromodulation readout and progress toward adaptive closed-loop neurotechnology. We introduce Neural State Geometry (NSG), which is a sensor-space framework derived from the complex analytic EEG field rather than a biophysical neuronal model. NSG integrates a Neural Amplitude Landscape (NAL), mapping analytic-amplitude distributions to statistical temperature, internal energy, entropy and heat capacity through exact canonical statistical thermodynamics; pairwise Stokes/coherency geometry representing inter-channel organisation using electromagnetic coherence theory; and quantum-information-inspired state-space geometry quantifying selected-basis organisation. We evaluate NSG through controlled synthetic tests, outcome-blind human-EEG amplitude-model comparison, a single-participant cognitive fatigue example, and a single-investigator transcranial focused ultrasound (TUS) neuromodulation feasibility case. Synthetic tests established descriptor selectivity and common-source sensitivity of zero-lag second-order geometry. NAL/generalised-gamma improved participant-balanced held-out prediction over Rayleigh, Nakagami and gamma but not lognormal. The cognitive fatigue example showed predominantly positive PRE–POST NAL shifts with spectral and second-order deformation. In the fixed-order TUS case, the largest reference-stable NAL displacement occurred at the application site alongside broader sensor-space deformation. NSG provides an interpretable layer for comparing natural and intervention-associated EEG states, supporting future biomarker and target-engagement validation, mechanistic investigation and closed-loop neural engineering.

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