scholarly journals Is Resting-State EEG Longitudinally Associated With Recovery of Clinical Neurological Impairments Early Poststroke? A Prospective Cohort Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 389-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mique Saes ◽  
Sarah B. Zandvliet ◽  
Aukje S. Andringa ◽  
Andreas Daffertshofer ◽  
Jos W. R. Twisk ◽  
...  

Background. The time course of cortical activation and its relation with clinical measures may elucidate mechanisms underlying spontaneous neurobiological recovery after stroke. Objective. We aimed to investigate (1) the time course of cortical activation as revealed by EEG-based spectral characteristics during awake rest and (2) the development of these spectral characteristics in relation to global neurological and upper-limb motor recovery in the first 6 months poststroke. Methods. Resting-state EEG was measured serially in 41 patients after a first-ever ischemic stroke, within 3 and at 5, 12, and 26 weeks poststroke. We computed the brain symmetry index (BSI) and directional BSI (BSIdir) over different frequency bands (1-25 Hz, delta, theta) and delta/alpha ratio (DAR). The National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and Fugl-Meyer motor assessment of the upper extremity (FM-UE) were determined as clinical reflections of spontaneous neurobiological recovery. Longitudinal changes in spectral characteristics and within- and between-subject associations with NIHSS and FM-UE were analyzed with linear mixed models. Results. Spectral characteristics showed a gradual normalization over time, within and beyond 12 weeks poststroke. Significant within- and between-subject associations with NIHSS were found for DAR of the affected hemisphere (DARAH) and BSIdirdelta. BSIdirdelta also demonstrated significant within- and between-subject associations with FM-UE. Conclusions. Changes in spectral characteristics are not restricted to the time window of recovery of clinical neurological impairments. The present study suggests that decreasing DARAH and BSIdirdelta reflect improvement of global neurological impairments, whereas BSIdirdelta was also specifically associated with upper-limb motor recovery early poststroke.

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 552-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan C. Cortes ◽  
Jeff Goldsmith ◽  
Michelle D. Harran ◽  
Jing Xu ◽  
Nathan Kim ◽  
...  

Background. Studies demonstrate that most arm motor recovery occurs within three months after stroke, when measured with standard clinical scales. Improvements on these measures, however, reflect a combination of recovery in motor control, increases in strength, and acquisition of compensatory strategies. Objective. To isolate and characterize the time course of recovery of arm motor control over the first year poststroke. Methods. Longitudinal study of 18 participants with acute ischemic stroke. Motor control was evaluated using a global kinematic measure derived from a 2-dimensional reaching task designed to minimize the need for antigravity strength and prevent compensation. Arm impairment was evaluated with the Fugl-Meyer Assessment of the upper extremity (FMA-UE), activity limitation with the Action Research Arm Test (ARAT), and strength with biceps dynamometry. Assessments were conducted at: 1.5, 5, 14, 27, and 54 weeks poststroke. Results. Motor control in the paretic arm improved up to week 5, with no further improvement beyond this time point. In contrast, improvements in the FMA-UE, ARAT, and biceps dynamometry continued beyond 5 weeks, with a similar magnitude of improvement between weeks 5 and 54 as the one observed between weeks 1.5 and 5. Conclusions. Recovery after stroke plateaued much earlier for arm motor control, isolated with a global kinematic measure, compared to motor function assessed with clinical scales. This dissociation between the time courses of kinematic and clinical measures of recovery may be due to the contribution of strength improvement to the latter. Novel interventions, focused on the first month poststroke, will be required to exploit the narrower window of spontaneous recovery for motor control.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (8) ◽  
pp. 690-701
Author(s):  
Aukje Andringa ◽  
Carel Meskers ◽  
Ingrid van de Port ◽  
Erwin van Wegen ◽  
Gert Kwakkel

Background. Patients with an upper limb motor impairment are likely to develop wrist hyper-resistance during the first months post stroke. The time course of wrist hyper-resistance in terms of neural and biomechanical components, and their interaction with motor recovery, is poorly understood. Objective. To investigate the time course of neural and biomechanical components of wrist hyper-resistance in relation to upper limb motor recovery in the first 6 months post stroke. Methods. Neural (NC), biomechanical elastic (EC), and viscous (VC) components of wrist hyper-resistance (NeuroFlexor device), and upper limb motor recovery (Fugl-Meyer upper extremity scale [FM-UE]), were assessed in 17 patients within 3 weeks and at 5, 12, and 26 weeks post stroke. Patients were stratified according to the presence of voluntary finger extension (VFE) at baseline. Time course of wrist hyper-resistance components and assumed interaction effects were analyzed using linear mixed models. Results. On average, patients without VFE at baseline (n = 8) showed a significant increase in NC, EC, and VC, and an increase in FM-UE from 13 to 26 points within the first 6 months post stroke. A significant increase in NC within 5 weeks preceded a significant increase in EC between weeks 12 and 26. Patients with VFE at baseline (n = 9) showed, on average, no significant increase in components from baseline to 6 months whereas FM-UE scores improved from 38 to 60 points. Conclusion. Our findings suggest that the development of neural and biomechanical wrist hyper-resistance components in patients with severe baseline motor deficits is determined by lack of spontaneous neurobiological recovery early post stroke.


Author(s):  
Jochen Seitz ◽  
Katharina Bühren ◽  
Georg G. von Polier ◽  
Nicole Heussen ◽  
Beate Herpertz-Dahlmann ◽  
...  

Objective: Acute anorexia nervosa (AN) leads to reduced gray (GM) and white matter (WM) volume in the brain, which however improves again upon restoration of weight. Yet little is known about the extent and clinical correlates of these brain changes, nor do we know much about the time-course and completeness of their recovery. Methods: We conducted a meta-analysis and a qualitative review of all magnetic resonance imaging studies involving volume analyses of the brain in both acute and recovered AN. Results: We identified structural neuroimaging studies with a total of 214 acute AN patients and 177 weight-recovered AN patients. In acute AN, GM was reduced by 5.6% and WM by 3.8% compared to healthy controls (HC). Short-term weight recovery 2–5 months after admission resulted in restitution of about half of the GM aberrations and almost full WM recovery. After 2–8 years of remission GM and WM were nearly normalized, and differences to HC (GM: –1.0%, WM: –0.7%) were no longer significant, although small residual changes could not be ruled out. In the qualitative review some studies found GM volume loss to be associated with cognitive deficits and clinical prognosis. Conclusions: GM and WM were strongly reduced in acute AN. The completeness of brain volume rehabilitation remained equivocal.


Author(s):  
Yuliya S. Dzhos ◽  
◽  
Irina A. Men’shikova ◽  

This article presents the results of the study on spectral electroencephalogram (EEG) characteristics in 7–10-year-old children (8 girls and 22 boys) having difficulties with voluntary regulation of activity after 10 and 20 neurofeedback sessions using beta-activating training. Brain bioelectric activity was recorded in 16 standard leads using the Neuron-Spectrum-4/VPM complex. The dynamics was assessed by EEG beta and theta bands during neurofeedback. An increase in the total power of beta band oscillations was established both after 10 and after 20 sessions of EEG biofeedback in the frontal (p ≤ 0.001), left parietal (p ≤ 0.036), and temporal (p ≤ 0.003) areas of the brain. A decrease in the spectral characteristics of theta band oscillations was detected: after 10 neurofeedback sessions in the frontal (p ≤ 0.008) and temporal (p ≤ 0.006) areas of both hemispheres, as well as in the parietal area of the left hemisphere (p ≤ 0.005); after 20 sessions, in the central (p ≤ 0.004), frontal (p ≤ 0.001) and temporal (p ≤ 0.001) areas of both hemispheres, as well as in the occipital (p ≤ 0.047) and parietal (p ≤ 0.001) areas of the left hemisphere. The study into the dynamics of bioelectric activity during biofeedback using EEG parameters in 7–10-year-old children with impaired voluntary regulation of higher mental functions allowed us to prove the advisability of 20 sessions, as the increase in high-frequency activity and decrease in low-frequency activity do not stop with the 10th session. Changes in these parameters after 10 EEG biofeedback sessions are expressed mainly in the frontotemporal areas of both hemispheres, while after a course of 20 sessions, in both the frontotemporal and central parietal areas of the brain.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rossana Mastrandrea ◽  
Fabrizio Piras ◽  
Andrea Gabrielli ◽  
Nerisa Banaj ◽  
Guido Caldarelli ◽  
...  

AbstractNetwork neuroscience shed some light on the functional and structural modifications occurring to the brain associated with the phenomenology of schizophrenia. In particular, resting-state functional networks have helped our understanding of the illness by highlighting the global and local alterations within the cerebral organization. We investigated the robustness of the brain functional architecture in 44 medicated schizophrenic patients and 40 healthy comparators through an advanced network analysis of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data. The networks in patients showed more resistance to disconnection than in healthy controls, with an evident discrepancy between the two groups in the node degree distribution computed along a percolation process. Despite a substantial similarity of the basal functional organization between the two groups, the expected hierarchy of healthy brains' modular organization is crumbled in schizophrenia, showing a peculiar arrangement of the functional connections, characterized by several topologically equivalent backbones. Thus, the manifold nature of the functional organization’s basal scheme, together with its altered hierarchical modularity, may be crucial in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. This result fits the disconnection hypothesis that describes schizophrenia as a brain disorder characterized by an abnormal functional integration among brain regions.


Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 286
Author(s):  
Soheil Keshmiri

Recent decades have witnessed a substantial progress in the utilization of brain activity for the identification of stress digital markers. In particular, the success of entropic measures for this purpose is very appealing, considering (1) their suitability for capturing both linear and non-linear characteristics of brain activity recordings and (2) their direct association with the brain signal variability. These findings rely on external stimuli to induce the brain stress response. On the other hand, research suggests that the use of different types of experimentally induced psychological and physical stressors could potentially yield differential impacts on the brain response to stress and therefore should be dissociated from more general patterns. The present study takes a step toward addressing this issue by introducing conditional entropy (CE) as a potential electroencephalography (EEG)-based resting-state digital marker of stress. For this purpose, we use the resting-state multi-channel EEG recordings of 20 individuals whose responses to stress-related questionnaires show significantly higher and lower level of stress. Through the application of representational similarity analysis (RSA) and K-nearest-neighbor (KNN) classification, we verify the potential that the use of CE can offer to the solution concept of finding an effective digital marker for stress.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ángel Romero-Martínez ◽  
Macarena González ◽  
Marisol Lila ◽  
Enrique Gracia ◽  
Luis Martí-Bonmatí ◽  
...  

Introduction: There is growing scientific interest in understanding the biological mechanisms affecting and/or underlying violent behaviors in order to develop effective treatment and prevention programs. In recent years, neuroscientific research has tried to demonstrate whether the intrinsic activity within the brain at rest in the absence of any external stimulation (resting-state functional connectivity; RSFC) could be employed as a reliable marker for several cognitive abilities and personality traits that are important in behavior regulation, particularly, proneness to violence. Aims: This review aims to highlight the association between the RSFC among specific brain structures and the predisposition to experiencing anger and/or responding to stressful and distressing situations with anger in several populations. Methods: The scientific literature was reviewed following the PRISMA quality criteria for reviews, using the following digital databases: PubMed, PsycINFO, Psicodoc, and Dialnet. Results: The identification of 181 abstracts and retrieval of 34 full texts led to the inclusion of 17 papers. The results described in our study offer a better understanding of the brain networks that might explain the tendency to experience anger. The majority of the studies highlighted that diminished RSFC between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala might make people prone to reactive violence, but that it is also necessary to contemplate additional cortical (i.e. insula, gyrus [angular, supramarginal, temporal, fusiform, superior, and middle frontal], anterior and posterior cingulated cortex) and subcortical brain structures (i.e. hippocampus, cerebellum, ventral striatum, and nucleus centralis superior) in order to explain a phenomenon as complex as violence. Moreover, we also described the neural pathways that might underlie proactive violence and feelings of revenge, highlighting the RSFC between the OFC, ventral striatal, angular gyrus, mid-occipital cortex, and cerebellum. Conclusions. The results from this synthesis and critical analysis of RSFC findings in several populations offer guidelines for future research and for developing a more accurate model of proneness to violence, in order to create effective treatment and prevention programs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 118
Author(s):  
Blake R. Neyland ◽  
Christina E. Hugenschmidt ◽  
Robert G. Lyday ◽  
Jonathan H. Burdette ◽  
Laura D. Baker ◽  
...  

Elucidating the neural correlates of mobility is critical given the increasing population of older adults and age-associated mobility disability. In the current study, we applied graph theory to cross-sectional data to characterize functional brain networks generated from functional magnetic resonance imaging data both at rest and during a motor imagery (MI) task. Our MI task is derived from the Mobility Assessment Tool–short form (MAT-sf), which predicts performance on a 400 m walk, and the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB). Participants (n = 157) were from the Brain Networks and Mobility (B-NET) Study (mean age = 76.1 ± 4.3; % female = 55.4; % African American = 8.3; mean years of education = 15.7 ± 2.5). We used community structure analyses to partition functional brain networks into communities, or subnetworks, of highly interconnected regions. Global brain network community structure decreased during the MI task when compared to the resting state. We also examined the community structure of the default mode network (DMN), sensorimotor network (SMN), and the dorsal attention network (DAN) across the study population. The DMN and SMN exhibited a task-driven decline in consistency across the group when comparing the MI task to the resting state. The DAN, however, displayed an increase in consistency during the MI task. To our knowledge, this is the first study to use graph theory and network community structure to characterize the effects of a MI task, such as the MAT-sf, on overall brain network organization in older adults.


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