Novel Virtual Environment for Alternative Treatment of Children with Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy is a severe condition usually caused by decreased brain oxygenation during pregnancy, at birth or soon after birth. Conventional treatments for cerebral palsy are often tiresome and expensive, leading patients to quit treatment. In this paper, we describe a virtual environment for patients to engage in a playful therapeutic game for neuropsychomotor rehabilitation, based on the experience of the occupational therapy program of the Nucleus for Integrated Medical Assistance (NAMI) at the University of Fortaleza, Brazil. Integration between patient and virtual environment occurs through the hand motion sensor “Leap Motion,” plus the electroencephalographic sensor “MindWave,” responsible for measuring attention levels during task execution. To evaluate the virtual environment, eight clinical experts on cerebral palsy were subjected to a questionnaire regarding the potential of the experimental virtual environment to promote cognitive and motor rehabilitation, as well as the potential of the treatment to enhance risks and/or negatively influence the patient’s development. Based on the very positive appraisal of the experts, we propose that the experimental virtual environment is a promising alternative tool for the rehabilitation of children with cerebral palsy.Cerebral palsy is a severe condition usually caused by decreased brain oxygenation during pregnancy, at birth or soon after birth. Conventional treatments for cerebral palsy are often tiresome and expensive, leading patients to quit treatment. In this paper, we describe a virtual environment for patients to engage in a playful therapeutic game for neuropsychomotor rehabilitation, based on the experience of the occupational therapy program of the Nucleus for Integrated Medical Assistance (NAMI) at the University of Fortaleza, Brazil. Integration between patient and virtual environment occurs through the hand motion sensor “Leap Motion,” plus the electroencephalographic sensor “MindWave,” responsible for measuring attention levels during task execution. To evaluate the virtual environment, eight clinical experts on cerebral palsy were subjected to a questionnaire regarding the potential of the experimental virtual environment to promote cognitive and motor rehabilitation, as well as the potential of the treatment to enhance risks and/or negatively influence the patient’s development. Based on the very positive appraisal of the experts, we propose that the experimental virtual environment is a promising alternative tool for the rehabilitation of children with cerebral palsy

Review of EEG-based pattern classification frameworks for dyslexia

Dyslexia is a disability that causes difficulties in reading and writing despite average intelligence. This hidden disability often goes undetected since dyslexics are normal and healthy in every other way. Electroencephalography (EEG) is one of the upcoming methods being researched for identifying unique brain activation patterns in dyslexics. The aims of this paper are to examine pros and cons of existing EEG-based pattern classification frameworks for dyslexia and recommend optimisations through the findings to assist future research. A critical analysis of the literature is conducted focusing on each framework’s (1) data collection, (2) pre-processing, (3) analysis and (4) classification methods. A wide range of inputs as well as classification approaches has been experimented for the improvement in EEG-based pattern classification frameworks. It was uncovered that incorporating reading- and writing-related tasks to experiments used in data collection may help improve these frameworks instead of using only simple tasks, and those unwanted artefacts caused by body movements in the EEG signals during reading and writing activities could be minimised using artefact subspace reconstruction. Further, support vector machine is identified as a promising classifier to be used in EEG-based pattern classification frameworks for dyslexia

Artificial immune system and particle swarm optimization for electroencephalogram based epileptic seizure classification

Automated analysis of brain activity from electroencephalogram (EEG) has indispensable applications in many fields such as epilepsy research. This research has studied the abilities of negative selection and clonal selection in artificial immune system (AIS) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) to produce different reliable and efficient methods for EEG-based epileptic seizure recognition which have not yet been explored. Initially, an optimization-based classification model was proposed to describe an individual use of clonal selection and PSO to build nearest centroid classifier for EEG signals. Next, two hybrid optimization-based negative selection models were developed to investigate the integration of the AIS-based techniques and negative selection with PSO from the perspective of classification and detection. In these models, a set of detectors was created by negative selection as self-tolerant and their quality was improved towards non-self using clonal selection or PSO. The models included a mechanism to maintain the diversity and generality among the detectors. The detectors were produced in the classification model for each class, while the detection model generated the detectors only for the abnormal class. These hybrid models differ from each other in hybridization configuration, solution representation and objective function. The three proposed models were abstracted into innovative methods by applying clonal selection and PSO for optimization, namely clonal selection classification algorithm (CSCA), particle swarm classification algorithm (PSCA), clonal negative selection classification algorithm (CNSCA), swarm negative selection classification algorithm (SNSCA), clonal negative selection detection algorithm (CNSDA) and swarm negative selection detection algorithm (SNSDA). These methods were evaluated on EEG data using common measures in medical diagnosis. The findings demonstrated that the methods can efficiently achieve a reliable recognition of epileptic activity in EEG signals. Although CNSCA gave the best performance, CNSDA and SNSDA are preferred due to their efficiency in time and space. A comparison with other methods in the literature showed the competitiveness of the proposed methods

Comparação entre escalogramas e bancos de filtros Wavelet utilizados na classificação de padrões epileptiformes

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia Elétrica, Florianópolis, 2016.A comprovação clínica do diagnóstico da epilepsia é realizada por um neurofisiologista que analisa registros de eletroencefalograma (EEG) do indivíduo com suspeita da doença, resultando em um processo demorado. Embora muitos estudos tenham proposto métodos ou sistemas de automatização da análise dos registros de EEG, ainda não existe um algoritmo ou sistema que realize este tipo de tarefa com o sucesso esperado no ambiente clínico. Uma solução adotada para aumentar o desempenho de tais classificadores é o processamento digital dos sinais de EEG. Dentre os métodos de processamento, a Transformada Wavelet tem apresentado resultados promissores. Em continuidade aos estudos desenvolvidos em uma linha de pesquisa do Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica (IEB-UFSC) da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), este trabalho propõe-se a realizar uma comparação direta entre os dois métodos de aplicação da Transformada Wavelet: Banco de Filtros e Escalogramas. As funções Wavelet analisadas neste trabalho foram escolhidas de acordo com uma revisão da literatura. Uma base de dados com segmentos de sinais de EEG é processada com banco de filtros e escalogramas. A base de dados processada é aplicada à entrada de redes neurais artificiais para o reconhecimento de padrões eletrográficos característicos de pacientes com Epilepsia. Os resultados são analisados a partir de dois métodos: análise não paramétrica e análise da rede com maior eficiência obtida para cada função Wavelet. Utilizando análise não paramétrica, as funções Coif 4 e Db 4, utilizando Banco de Filtros, e Bior 3.1 e Coif 1, utilizando Escalogramas, apresentam bom desempenho. Por sua vez, fazendo análise com base em apenas uma única rede para cada função, a melhor configuração é utilizando a função Bior 3.1 com processamento por Banco de Filtros.Abstract : The clinical evidence of the diagnosis of epilepsy is performed by a neurophysiologist who analyzes the electroencephalogram (EEG) records of the individual with suspected disease, resulting in a time consuming process. Although many studies have proposed methods or automated systems for EEG record analysis, there is still no algorithm or system that performs this type of task with the expected success in the clinical setting. One solution adopted to increase the performance of such classifiers is the digital processing of the EEG signals. Among the processing methods, the Wavelet Transform has presented promising results. In continuity to the studies developed in a line of research of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IEB-UFSC) of the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), this work proposes to make a direct comparison between the two methods of application of the Wavelet Transform: Bank of Filters and Scalograms. The Wavelet functions analyzed in this work were chosen according to a literature review. A database with segments of EEG signals is processed with Wavelet Filter Banks and Scalograms. The processed database is applied to the input of artificial neural networks for the recognition of electrographic patterns characteristic of patients with Epilepsy. The results are analyzed using two methods: non-parametric analysis and the most efficient network obtained for each Wavelet function. Using non-parametric analysis, the Coif 4 and Db 4 functions, for Filter Banks, and the Bior 3.1 and Coif 1 functions, using Scalograms, perform well. In turn, doing the analysis based only a single network for each function, the best configuration is using the Bior 3.1 function and processing by Filter Bank

EEG signal classification for epilepsy diagnosis via optimum path forest - A systematic assessment

Epilepsy refers to a set of chronic neurological syndromes characterized by transient and unexpected electrical disturbances of the brain. The detailed analysis of the electroencephalogram (EEG) is one of the most influential steps for the proper diagnosis of this disorder. This work presents a systematic performance evaluation of the recently introduced optimum path forest (OPF) classifier when coping with the task of epilepsy diagnosis directly through EEG signal analysis. For this purpose, we have made extensive use of a benchmark dataset composed of five classes, whose full discrimination is very hard to achieve. Four types of wavelet functions and three well-known filter methods were considered for the tasks of feature extraction and selection, respectively. Moreover, support vector machines configured with radial basis function (SVM-RBF) kernel, multilayer perceptron neural networks (ANN-MLP), and Bayesian classifiers were used for comparison in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. Overall, the results evidence the outperformance of the OPF classifier in both types of criteria. Indeed, the OPF classifier was usually extremely fast, with average training/testing times much lower than those required by SVM-RBF and ANN-MLP. Moreover, when configured with Coiflets as feature extractors, the performance scores achieved by the OPF classifier include 89.2% as average accuracy and sensitivity/specificity values higher than 80% for all five classes. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP

Identification of EEG signal patterns between adults with dyslexia and normal controls

Electroencephalography (EEG) is one of the most useful techniques used to represent behaviours of the brain and helps explore valuable insights through the measurement of brain electrical activity. Hence, it plays a vital role in detecting neurological disorders such as epilepsy. Dyslexia is a hidden learning disability with a neurological origin affecting a significant amount of the world population. Studies show unique brain structures and behaviours in individuals with dyslexia and these variations have become more evident with the use of techniques such as EEG, Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), Magnetoencephalography (MEG) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET). In this thesis, we are particularly interested in discussing the use of EEG to explore unique brain activities of adults with dyslexia. We attempt to discover unique EEG signal patterns between adults with dyslexia compared to normal controls while performing tasks that are more challenging for individuals with dyslexia. These tasks include real--‐word reading, nonsense--‐ word reading, passage reading, Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN), writing, typing, browsing the web, table interpretation and typing of random numbers. Each participant was instructed to perform these specific tasks while staying seated in front of a computer screen with the EEG headset setup on his or her head. The EEG signals captured during these tasks were examined using a machine learning classification framework, which includes signal preprocessing, frequency sub--‐band decomposition, feature extraction, classification and verification. Cubic Support Vector Machine (CSVM) classifiers were developed for separate brain regions of each specified task in order to determine the optimal brain regions and EEG sensors that produce the most unique EEG signal patterns between the two groups. The research revealed that adults with dyslexia generated unique EEG signal patterns compared to normal controls while performing the specific tasks. One of the vital discoveries of this research was that the nonsense--‐words classifiers produced higher Validation Accuracies (VA) compared to real--‐ words classifiers, confirming difficulties in phonological decoding skills seen in individuals with dyslexia are reflected in the EEG signal patterns, which was detected in the left parieto--‐occipital. It was also uncovered that all three reading tasks showed the same optimal brain region, and RAN which is known to have a relationship to reading also showed optimal performance in an overlapping region, demonstrating the likelihood that the association between reading and RAN reflects in the EEG signal patterns. Finally, we were able to discover brain regions that produced exclusive EEG signal patterns between the two groups that have not been reported before for writing, typing, web browsing, table interpretation and typing of random numbers