Communications Biophysics

Contains research objectives and reports on two research projects.National Science Foundation(Grant GP-2495)National Institutes of Health (Grant MH-04737-04)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NsG-496

Dynamics of biologically informed neural mass models of the brain

This book contributes to the development and analysis of computational models that help brain function to be understood. The mean activity of a brain area is mathematically modeled in such a way as to strike a balance between tractability and biological plausibility. Neural mass models (NMM) are used to describe switching between qualitatively different regimes (such as those due to pharmacological interventions, epilepsy, sleep, or context-induced state changes), and to explain resonance phenomena in a photic driving experiment. The description of varying states in an ordered sequence gives a principle scheme for the modeling of complex phenomena on multiple time scales. The NMM is matched to the photic driving experiment routinely applied in the diagnosis of such diseases as epilepsy, migraine, schizophrenia and depression. The model reproduces the clinically relevant entrainment effect and predictions are made for improving the experimental setting.Die vorliegende Arbeit stellt einen Beitrag zur Entwicklung und Analyse von Computermodellen zum Verständnis von Hirnfunktionen dar. Es wird die mittlere Aktivität eines Hirnareals analytisch einfach und dabei biologisch plausibel modelliert. Auf Grundlage eines Neuronalen Massenmodells (NMM) werden die Wechsel zwischen Oszillationsregimen (z.B. durch pharmakologisch, epilepsie-, schlaf- oder kontextbedingte Zustandsänderungen) als geordnete Folge beschrieben und Resonanzphänomene in einem Photic-Driving-Experiment erklärt. Dieses NMM kann sehr komplexe Dynamiken (z.B. Chaos) innerhalb biologisch plausibler Parameterbereiche hervorbringen. Um das Verhalten abzuschätzen, wird das NMM als Funktion konstanter Eingangsgrößen und charakteristischer Zeitenkonstanten vollständig auf Bifurkationen untersucht und klassifiziert. Dies ermöglicht die Beschreibung wechselnder Regime als geordnete Folge durch spezifische Eingangstrajektorien. Es wird ein Prinzip vorgestellt, um komplexe Phänomene durch Prozesse verschiedener Zeitskalen darzustellen. Da aufgrund rhythmischer Stimuli und der intrinsischen Rhythmen von Neuronenverbänden die Eingangsgrößen häufig periodisch sind, wird das Verhalten des NMM als Funktion der Intensität und Frequenz einer periodischen Stimulation mittels der zugehörigen Lyapunov-Spektren und der Zeitreihen charakterisiert. Auf der Basis der größten Lyapunov-Exponenten wird das NMM mit dem Photic-Driving-Experiment überein gebracht. Dieses Experiment findet routinemäßige Anwendung in der Diagnostik verschiedener Erkrankungen wie Epilepsie, Migräne, Schizophrenie und Depression. Durch die Anwendung des vorgestellten NMM wird der für die Diagnostik entscheidende Mitnahmeeffekt reproduziert und es werden Vorhersagen für eine Verbesserung der Indikation getroffen

Effects of repetitive SSVEPs on EEG complexity using multiscale inherent fuzzy entropy

© 2019 Elsevier B.V. Multiscale inherent fuzzy entropy is an objective measurement of electroencephalography (EEG) complexity, reflecting the habituation of brain systems. Entropy dynamics are generally believed to reflect the ability of the brain to adapt to a visual stimulus environment. In this study, we explored repetitive steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based EEG complexity by assessing multiscale inherent fuzzy entropy with relative measurements. We used a wearable EEG device with Oz and Fpz electrodes to collect EEG signals from 40 participants under the following three conditions: a resting state (closed-eyes (CE) and open-eyes (OE) stimulation with five 15-Hz CE SSVEPs and stimulation with five 20-Hz OE SSVEPs. We noted monotonic enhancement of occipital EEG relative complexity with increasing stimulus times in CE and OE conditions. The occipital EEG relative complexity was significantly higher for the fifth SSVEP than for the first SSEVP (FDR-adjusted p < 0.05). Similarly, the prefrontal EEG relative complexity tended to be significantly higher in the OE condition compared to that in the CE condition (FDR-adjusted p < 0.05). The results also indicate that multiscale inherent fuzzy entropy is superior to other competing multiscale-based entropy methods. In conclusion, EEG relative complexity increases with stimulus times, a finding that reflects the strong habituation of brain systems. These results suggest that multiscale inherent fuzzy entropy is an EEG pattern with which brain complexity can be assessed using repetitive SSVEP stimuli

Extraction of SSVEPs-Based Inherent Fuzzy Entropy Using a Wearable Headband EEG in Migraine Patients

© 1993-2012 IEEE. Inherent fuzzy entropy is an objective measurement of electroencephalography (EEG) complexity reflecting the robustness of brain systems. In this study, we present a novel application of multiscale relative inherent fuzzy entropy using repetitive steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) to investigate EEG complexity change between two migraine phases, i.e., interictal (baseline) and preictal (before migraine attacks) phases. We used a wearable headband EEG device with O1, Oz, O2, and Fpz electrodes to collect EEG signals from 80 participants [40 migraine patients and 40 healthy controls (HCs)] under the following two conditions: During resting state and SSVEPs with five 15-Hz photic stimuli. We found a significant enhancement in occipital EEG entropy with increasing stimulus times in both HCs and patients in the interictal phase, but a reverse trend in patients in the preictal phase. In the 1st SSVEP, occipital EEG entropy of the HCs was significantly lower than that of patents in the preictal phase (FDR-adjusted p < 0.05). Regarding the transitional variance of EEG entropy between the 1st and 5th SSVEPs, patients in the preictal phase exhibited significantly lower values than patients in the interictal phase (FDR-adjusted p < 0.05). Furthermore, in the classification model, the AdaBoost ensemble learning showed an accuracy of 81 pm 6%and area under the curve of 0.87 for classifying interictal and preictal phases. In contrast, there were no differences in EEG entropy among groups or sessions by using other competing entropy models, including approximate entropy, sample entropy, and fuzzy entropy on the same dataset. In conclusion, inherent fuzzy entropy offers novel applications in visual stimulus environments and may have the potential to provide a preictal alert to migraine patients

Aerospace Medicine and Biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes, supplement 127, April 1974

This special bibliography lists 279 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in March 1974

Neuroimaging of functional and structural alterations in Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy and Frontal Lobe Epilepsy

Epilepsy is the commonest neurological disorder and has profound effects on patients, who suffer from epileptic seizures and also from cognitive impairment. The exact mechanisms of cognitive impairment remain unclear. Aim of this study was to analyse in more detail the functional and structural alterations in two different patient groups, juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) and frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE). We recruited and investigated 26 healthy controls, 30 patients with JME and 67 patients with FLE. All participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), including structural imaging, five functional MRI paradigms and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) as well as neuropsychological assessment. In patients with JME we could show motor cortex hyperactivity and an increased functional connectivity between the pre-frontal cognitive cortex and the motor system. This correlated with increased structural connectivity, measured by DTI and also with disease severity: patients with more active epilepsy showed a stronger hyperconnectivity. In FLE, we could show extensive reorganization of cognitive functions, and we could show, that functional MRI can be used as a new diagnostic method, to identify dysfunctional areas, indicative of the seizure onset zone. This is particularly important in patients with nonlesional FLE, where epilepsy surgery may be advisable but is challenged by the absence of a visible surgical target. The study has provided new insights into pathophysiological mechanisms in JME, specifically explaining the characteristic effect of motor seizures triggered by cognitive effort. It has contributed strong evidence that the observed imaging alterations are the cause and not a consequence of JME, by documenting marked structural changes in seizure free patients. For patients with FLE the study showed highly individual effects of chronic epilepsy on cognitive processing in the frontal lobe. These alterations are clinically relevant for both, avoiding complications from surgery, but also to identify pathological alterations not visible in conventional MRI

AUTOMATED INTERPRETATION OF THE BACKGROUND EEG USING FUZZY LOGIC

A new framework is described for managing uncertainty and for deahng with artefact corruption to introduce objectivity in the interpretation of the electroencephalogram (EEG). Conventionally, EEG interpretation is time consuming and subjective, and is known to show significant inter- and intra-personnel variation. A need thus exists to automate the interpretation of the EEG to provide a more consistent and efficient assessment. However, automated analysis of EEGs by computers is complicated by two major factors. The difficulty of adequately capturing in machine form, the skills and subjective expertise of the experienced electroencephalbgrapher, and the lack of a reliable means of dealing with the range of EEG artefacts (signal contamination). In this thesis, a new framework is described which introduces objectivity in two important outcomes of clinical evaluation of the EEG, namely, the clinical factual report and the clinical 'conclusion', by capturing the subjective expertise of the electroencephalographer and dealing with the problem of artefact corruption. The framework is separated into two stages .to assist piecewise optimisation and to cater for different requirements. The first stage, 'quantitative analysis', relies on novel digital signal processing algorithms and cluster analysis techniques to reduce data and identify and describe background activities in the EEG. To deal with artefact corruption, an artefact removal strategy, based on new reUable techniques for artefact identification is used to ensure that artefact-free activities only are used in the analysis. The outcome is a quantitative analysis, which efficiently describes the background activity in the record, and can support future clinical investigations in neurophysiology. In clinical practice, many of the EEG features are described by the clinicians in natural language terms, such as very high, extremely irregular, somewhat abnormal etc. The second stage of the framework, 'qualitative analysis', captures the subjectivity and linguistic uncertainty expressed.by the clinical experts, using novel, intelligent models, based on fuzzy logic, to provide an analysis closely comparable to the clinical interpretation made in practice. The outcome of this stage is an EEG report with qualitative descriptions to complement the quantitative analysis. The system was evaluated using EEG records from 1 patient with Alzheimer's disease and 2 age-matched normal controls for the factual report, and 3 patients with Alzheimer's disease and 7 age-matched nonnal controls for the 'conclusion'. Good agreement was found between factual reports produced by the system and factual reports produced by qualified clinicians. Further, the 'conclusion' produced by the system achieved 100% discrimination between the two subject groups. After a thorough evaluation, the system should significantly aid the process of EEG interpretation and diagnosis