Abstract
Traditional methods for analyzing the EEG are implicitly based on some unapt assumptions regarding the nature of brain function. The EEG contains more diagnostic information than can be obtained using these methods. I assessed the likelihood that nonlinear analysis of EEGs could yield useful functional information concerning patients with brain diseases. I distinguished the kinds of clinical and physiological information that can be obtained using traditional versus novel methods of analysis of brain electrical activity, and I described the limitations of the novel methods.