A continuous mapping of sleep states through association of EEG with a mesoscale cortical model

Here we show that a mathematical model of the human sleep cycle can be used to obtain a detailed description of electroencephalogram (EEG) sleep stages, and we discuss how this analysis may aid in the prediction and prevention of seizures during sleep. The association between EEG data and the cortical model is found via locally linear embedding (LLE), a method of dimensionality reduction. We first show that LLE can distinguish between traditional sleep stages when applied to EEG data. It reliably separates REM and non-REM sleep and maps the EEG data to a low-dimensional output space where the sleep state changes smoothly over time. We also incorporate the concept of strongly connected components and use this as a method of automatic outlier rejection for EEG data. Then, by using LLE on a hybrid data set containing both sleep EEG and signals generated from the mesoscale cortical model, we quantify the relationship between the data and the mathematical model. This enables us to take any sample of sleep EEG data and associate it with a position among the continuous range of sleep states provided by the model; we can thus infer a trajectory of states as the subject sleeps. Lastly, we show that this method gives consistent results for various subjects over a full night of sleep and can be done in real time

Long-Range Temporal Correlations Reflect Treatment Response in the Electroencephalogram of Patients with Infantile Spasms

Infantile spasms syndrome is an epileptic encephalopathy in which prompt diagnosis and treatment initiation are critical to therapeutic response. Diagnosis of the disease heavily depends on the identification of characteristic electroencephalographic (EEG) patterns, including hypsarrhythmia. However, visual assessment of the presence and characteristics of hypsarrhythmia is challenging because multiple variants of the pattern exist, leading to poor inter-rater reliability. We investigated whether a quantitative measurement of the control of neural synchrony in the EEGs of infantile spasms patients could be used to reliably distinguish the presence of hypsarrhythmia and indicate successful treatment outcomes. We used autocorrelation and Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA) to measure the strength of long-range temporal correlations in 21 infantile spasms patients before and after treatment and 21 control subjects. The strength of long-range temporal correlations was significantly lower in patients with hypsarrhythmia than control patients, indicating decreased control of neural synchrony. There was no difference between patients without hypsarrhythmia and control patients. Further, the presence of hypsarrhythmia could be classified based on the DFA exponent and intercept with 92% accuracy using a support vector machine. Successful treatment was marked by a larger increase in the DFA exponent compared to those in which spasms persisted. These results suggest that the strength of long-range temporal correlations is a marker of pathological cortical activity that correlates with treatment response. Combined with current clinical measures, this quantitative tool has the potential to aid objective identification of hypsarrhythmia and assessment of treatment efficacy to inform clinical decision-making

Coding of Information in the Phase of Local Field Potentials within Human Medial Temporal Lobe

There is increasing evidence that the phase of ongoing oscillations plays a role in neural coding, but its relative importance throughout the brain has yet to be understood. We assessed single-trial phase coding in four temporal lobe and four frontal lobe regions of the human brain using local field potentials (LFPs) recorded during a card-matching task. In the temporal lobe, classification of correct/incorrect matches based on LFP phase was significantly better than classification based on amplitude and comparable to the full LFP signal. Surprisingly, in these regions, the correct/incorrect mean phases became aligned to one another before they diverged and coded for trial outcome. Neural responses in the amygdala were consistent with a mechanism of phase resetting, while parahippocampal gyrus activity was indicative of evoked potentials. These findings highlight the importance of phase coding in human medial temporal lobe and suggest that different brain regions may represent information in diverse ways

Detection of anomalous high-frequency events in human intracranial EEG.

ObjectiveHigh-frequency oscillations (HFOs) are a promising biomarker for the epileptogenic zone. However, no physiological definition of an HFO has been established, so detection relies on the empirical definition of an HFO derived from visual observation. This can bias estimates of HFO features such as amplitude and duration, thereby hindering their utility as biomarkers. Therefore, we set out to develop an algorithm that detects high-frequency events in the intracranial EEG that are morphologically distinct from background without requiring assumptions about event amplitude or shape.MethodWe propose the anomaly detection algorithm (ADA), which uses unsupervised machine learning to identify segments of data that are distinct from the background. We apply ADA and a standard HFO detector using a root mean square amplitude threshold to intracranial EEG from 11 patients undergoing evaluation for epilepsy surgery. The rate, amplitude, and duration of the detected events and the percent overlap between the two detectors are compared.ResultIn the seizure onset zone (SOZ), ADA detected a subset of conventional HFOs. In non-SOZ channels, ADA detected at least twice as many events as the standard approach, including some conventional HFOs; however, ADA also identified many low and intermediate amplitude events missed by the standard amplitude-based method. The rate of ADA events was similar across all channels; however, the amplitude of ADA events was significantly higher in SOZ channels (P < .0045), and the amplitude measurement was more stable over time than the HFO rate, as indicated by a lower coefficient of variation (P < .0125).SignificanceADA does not require human supervision, parameter optimization, or prior assumptions about event shape, amplitude, or duration. Our results suggest that the algorithm's estimate of event amplitude may differentiate SOZ and non-SOZ channels. Further studies will examine the utility of HFO amplitude as a biomarker for epilepsy surgical outcome