If the image is any clue, it can refer to the summation of electric waves that occurs when interfering said waves in a target interference zone … within a human brain.
Physics teaches that when waves are combined in an interference zone, new waves are formed consisting of sum, product, etc. of the source waves. Instantaneous voltages sum at every (X,Y,Z,t) (space-time) coordinate. The resulting peaks and troughs form different frequencies and amplitudes than either of the individual source waves considered in isolation.
When the signals are modulated, the result becomes more complex to imagine, but can be modelled and calculated mathematically, and can be detected and measured empirically.
The advent of digital signal processors (DSPs) made this kind of analysis in realtime, by Fourier transforms, or signal generation to produce an intended result, feasible, in fact trivial.
DSPs started to come into commercial use in the early to mid 1990s. I presume they were available in the military domain much earlier.