Editorial: EEG Phenomenology and Multiple Faces of Short-term EEG Spectral Pattern

An electroencephalogram (EEG) signal is extremely nonstationary, highly composite and very complex, all of which reflects the underlying integral neurodynamics. Understanding the EEG “grammar”, its internal structural organization would place a “Rozetta stone” in researchers’ hands, allowing them to more adequately describe the information processes of the brain in terms of EEG phenomenology. This Special Issue presents a framework where short-term EEG spectral pattern (SP) of a particular type is viewed as an information-rich event in EEG phenomenology. It is suggested that transition from one type of SP to another is accompanied by a “switch” between brain microstates in specific neuronal networks, or in cortex areas; and these microstates are reflected in EEG as piecewise stationary segments. In this context multiple faces of a short-term EEG SP reflect the poly-operational structure of brain activity

Short-Term EEG Spectral Pattern as a Single Event in EEG Phenomenology

Spectral decomposition, to this day, still remains the main analytical paradigm for the analysis of EEG oscillations. However, conventional spectral analysis assesses the mean characteristics of the EEG power spectra averaged out over extended periods of time and/or broad frequency bands, thus resulting in a “static” picture which cannot reflect adequately the underlying neurodynamic. A relatively new promising area in the study of EEG is based on reducing the signal to elementary short-term spectra of various types in accordance with the number of types of EEG stationary segments instead of using averaged power spectrum for the whole EEG. It is suggested that the various perceptual and cognitive operations associated with a mental or behavioural condition constitute a single distinguishable neurophysiological state with a distinct and reliable spectral pattern. In this case, one type of short-term spectral pattern may be considered as a single event in EEG phenomenology. To support this assumption the following issues are considered in detail: (a) the relations between local EEG short-term spectral pattern of particular type and the actual state of the neurons in underlying network and a volume conduction; (b) relationship between morphology of EEG short-term spectral pattern and the state of the underlying neurodynamical system i.e. neuronal assembly; (c) relation of different spectral pattern components to a distinct physiological mechanism; (d) relation of different spectral pattern components to different functional significance; (e) developmental changes of spectral pattern components; (f) heredity of the variance in the individual spectral pattern and its components; (g) intra-individual stability of the sets of EEG short-term spectral patterns and their percent ratio; (h) discrete dynamics of EEG short-term spectral patterns. Functional relevance (consistency) of EEG short-term spectral patterns in accordance with the changes of brain functional state, cognitive task and with different neuropsychopathologies is demonstrated

Brain, Mind and Language Functional Architectures

The interaction between brain and language has been investigated by a vast amount of research and different approaches, which however do not offer a comprehensive and unified theoretical framework to analyze how brain functioning performs the mental processes we use in producing language and in understanding speech. This Special Issue addresses the need to develop such a general theoretical framework, by fostering an interaction among the various scientific disciplines and methodologies, which centres on investigating the functional architecture of brain, mind and language, and is articulated along the following main dimensions of research: (a) Language as a regulatory contour of brain and mental processes; (b) Language as a unique human phenomenon; (c) Language as a governor of human behaviour and brain operations; (d) Language as an organizational factor of ontogenesis of mentation and behaviour

Life or Death: Prognostic Value of a Resting EEG with Regards to Survival in Patients in Vegetative and Minimally Conscious States

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the potentially prognostic value of a resting state electroencephalogram (EEG) with regards to the clinical outcome from vegetative and minimally conscious states (VS and MCS) in terms of survival six months after a brain injury. METHODS: We quantified a dynamic repertoire of EEG oscillations in resting condition with eyes closed in patients in VS and MCS. The exact composition of EEG oscillations was assessed by analysing the probability-classification of short-term EEG spectral patterns. RESULTS: Results demonstrated that (a) the diversity and the variability of EEG for Non-Survivors were significantly lower than for Survivors; and (b) a higher probability of mostly delta and slow-theta oscillations occurring either alone or in combination were found during the first assessment for patients with a bad outcome (i.e., those who died) within six months of an injury compared to patients who survived. At the same time, patients with a good outcome (i.e., those who survived) after six months post-injury had a higher probability of mostly fast-theta and alpha oscillations occurring either alone or in combination during the first assessment when compared to patients who died within six months of an injury. CONCLUSIONS: Resting state EEGs properly analysed may have a potentially prognostic value with regards to the outcome from VS or MCS in terms of survival six months after a brain injury. SIGNIFICANCE: This work may have implications for clinical care, rehabilitative programmes and medical-legal decisions for patients with impaired consciousness states after being in a coma due to acute brain injuries

Complexity of multi-dimensional spontaneous EEG decreases during propofol induced general anaesthesia

Emerging neural theories of consciousness suggest a correlation between a specific type of neural dynamical complexity and the level of consciousness: When awake and aware, causal interactions between brain regions are both integrated (all regions are to a certain extent connected) and differentiated (there is inhomogeneity and variety in the interactions). In support of this, recent work by Casali et al (2013) has shown that Lempel-Ziv complexity correlates strongly with conscious level, when computed on the EEG response to transcranial magnetic stimulation. Here we investigated complexity of spontaneous high-density EEG data during propofol-induced general anaesthesia. We consider three distinct measures: (i) Lempel-Ziv complexity, which is derived from how compressible the data are; (ii) amplitude coalition entropy, which measures the variability in the constitution of the set of active channels; and (iii) the novel synchrony coalition entropy (SCE), which measures the variability in the constitution of the set of synchronous channels. After some simulations on Kuramoto oscillator models which demonstrate that these measures capture distinct ‘flavours’ of complexity, we show that there is a robustly measurable decrease in the complexity of spontaneous EEG during general anaesthesia

The Existence of a Hypnotic State Revealed by Eye Movements

Hypnosis has had a long and controversial history in psychology, psychiatry and neurology, but the basic nature of hypnotic phenomena still remains unclear. Different theoretical approaches disagree as to whether or not hypnosis may involve an altered mental state. So far, a hypnotic state has never been convincingly demonstrated, if the criteria for the state are that it involves some objectively measurable and replicable behavioural or physiological phenomena that cannot be faked or simulated by non-hypnotized control subjects. We present a detailed case study of a highly hypnotizable subject who reliably shows a range of changes in both automatic and volitional eye movements when given a hypnotic induction. These changes correspond well with the phenomenon referred to as the “trance stare” in the hypnosis literature. Our results show that this ‘trance stare’ is associated with large and objective changes in the optokinetic reflex, the pupillary reflex and programming a saccade to a single target. Control subjects could not imitate these changes voluntarily. For the majority of people, hypnotic induction brings about states resembling normal focused attention or mental imagery. Our data nevertheless highlight that in some cases hypnosis may involve a special state, which qualitatively differs from the normal state of consciousness

Brain function assessment in different conscious states

Background: The study of brain functioning is a major challenge in neuroscience fields as human brain has a dynamic and ever changing information processing. Case is worsened with conditions where brain undergoes major changes in so-called different conscious states. Even though the exact definition of consciousness is a hard one, there are certain conditions where the descriptions have reached a consensus. The sleep and the anesthesia are different conditions which are separable from each other and also from wakefulness. The aim of our group has been to tackle the issue of brain functioning with setting up similar research conditions for these three conscious states.Methods: In order to achieve this goal we have designed an auditory stimulation battery with changing conditions to be recorded during a 40 channel EEG polygraph (Nuamps) session. The stimuli (modified mismatch, auditory evoked etc.) have been administered both in the operation room and the sleep lab via Embedded Interactive Stimulus Unit which was developed in our lab. The overall study has provided some results for three domains of consciousness. In order to be able to monitor the changes we have incorporated Bispectral Index Monitoring to both sleep and anesthesia conditions.Results: The first stage results have provided a basic understanding in these altered states such that auditory stimuli have been successfully processed in both light and deep sleep stages. The anesthesia provides a sudden change in brain responsiveness; therefore a dosage dependent anesthetic administration has proved to be useful. The auditory processing was exemplified targeting N1 wave, with a thorough analysis from spectrogram to sLORETA. The frequency components were observed to be shifting throughout the stages. The propofol administration and the deeper sleep stages both resulted in the decreasing of N1 component. The sLORETA revealed similar activity at BA7 in sleep (BIS 70) and target propofol concentration of 1.2 μg/mL.Conclusions: The current study utilized similar stimulation and recording system and incorporated BIS dependent values to validate a common approach to sleep and anesthesia. Accordingly the brain has a complex behavior pattern, dynamically changing its responsiveness in accordance with stimulations and states. © 2010 Ozgoren et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Neural representations of the sense of self

The brain constructs representations of what is sensed and thought about in the form of nerve impulses that propagate in circuits and network assemblies (Circuit Impulse Patterns, CIPs). CIP representations of which humans are consciously aware occur in the context of a sense of self. Thus, research on mechanisms of consciousness might benefit from a focus on how a conscious sense of self is represented in brain. Like all senses, the sense of self must be contained in patterns of nerve impulses. Unlike the traditional senses that are registered by impulse flow in relatively simple, pauci-synaptic projection pathways, the sense of self is a system- level phenomenon that may be generated by impulse patterns in widely distributed complex and interacting circuits. The problem for researchers then is to identify the CIPs that are unique to conscious experience. Also likely to be of great relevance to constructing the representation of self are the coherence shifts in activity timing relations among the circuits. Consider that an embodied sense of self is generated and contained as unique combinatorial temporal patterns across multiple neurons in each circuit that contributes to constructing the sense of self. As with other kinds of CIPs, those representing the sense of self can be learned from experience, stored in memory, modified by subsequent experiences, and expressed in the form of decisions, choices, and commands. These CIPs are proposed here to be the actual physical basis for conscious thought and the sense of self. When active in wakefulness or dream states, the CIP representations of self act as an agent of the brain, metaphorically as an avatar. Because the selfhood CIP patterns may only have to represent the self and not directly represent the inner and outer worlds of embodied brain, the self representation should have more degrees of freedom than subconscious mind and may therefore have some capacity for a free-will mind of its own. S everal lines of evidence for this theory are reviewed. Suggested new research includes identifying distinct combinatorially coded impulse patterns and their temporal coherence shifts in defined circuitry, such as neocortical microcolumns. This task might be facilitated by identifying the micro-topography of field-potential oscillatory coherences among various regions and between different frequencies associated with specific conscious mentation. Other approaches can include identifying the changes in discrete conscious operations produced by focal trans-cranial magnetic stimulation