It is estimated that by 2030, mental illness will cost global economy $16 trillion. To identify mental illness, we introduce electroencephalography (EEG) based connectivity biomarkers. EEG permits exploration of brain causal activities at high temporal resolution. Conventional EEG based brain connectivity studies are mostly describing connections among scalp electrode locations, which challenge the functional meaning interpretation of brain activities. In this work, we introduce a novel methodology to generate functional brain network biomarkers from source localized EEG for identifying human subjects that suffer from neurological disorders. We use sLORETA for source localization, post artifact removal, of EEG data followed by threshold binarization for marking activated and deactivated cortical estimates, and data-driven energy landscape analysis, which is rooted in statistical physics theory. This yields the brain subnetwork energy states. Furthermore, we demonstrate our novel method by a preliminary study where EEG data was recorded from 11 channels at 1000Hz from 22 schizophrenia patients and 27 healthy controls in response to transcranial magnetic stimulation administered on the left motor cortex. Sensorimotor network that is responsible for processing input and output of senses and motor activity comprises of precentral gyrus, postcentral gyrus, and paracentral gyrus was observed. In result, we found an energy state in the sensorimotor network, that significantly distinguished patients from controls (p-value<0.05) with Bonferroni correction. For future scope, we are observing other networks. Conclusively, we demonstrate a promising non-invasive low-cost data-driven method for brain network biomarker extraction at high spatiotemporal resolution for clinical applications.
Studying electroencephalography (EEG) in response to transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is gaining popularity for investigating the dynamics of complex neural architecture in the brain. For example, the primary motor cortex (M1) executes voluntary movements by complex connections with other associated subnetworks. To understand these connections better, we analyzed EEG signal response to TMS at left M1 from schizophrenia patients and healthy controls and in contrast with resting state EEG recording. After removing artifacts from EEG, we conducted 2D to 3D sLORETA conversion, a well-established source localization method, for estimating signal strength of 68 source dipoles or cortical regions inside the brain. Next, we studied dynamic connectivity by computing time-evolving spatial coherence of 2278 (=68*(68-1)/2) pairs of cortical regions, with sliding window technique of 200ms window size and 20ms shift over 1sec long data. Pairs with consistent coherence (coherence>0.8 during 200+ sliding windows of patients and controls combined) were chosen for identifying stable networks. For example, we found that during the resting state, precuneus was steadily coherent with middle and superior temporal gyrus in the left hemisphere in both patient and controls. Their connectivity pattern over the sliding windows significantly differed between patients and controls (pvalue<0.05). Whereas for M1, the same was true for two other coherent pairs namely, superamarginal gyrus with lateral occipital gyrus in right hemisphere and medial orbitofrontal gyrus with fusiform in left hemisphere. The TMS-EEG dynamic connectivity results can help to differentiate patient and normal subjects and also help to better understand the brain architecture and mechanisms.
Brain simulation techniques have demonstrated undisputable therapeutic effects on neural diseases. Invasive stimulation techniques like deep brain stimulation (DBS) and noninvasive techniques like transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) have been approved by FDA as treatments for many drug resist neural disorders and diseases. Developing noninvasive, deep, and targeted brain stimulation techniques is currently one of the important tasks in brain researches. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcranial alternative current stimulation (tACS) techniques have the advantages of low cost and portability. However, neither of them can produce targeted stimulation due to lacking of electrical field focusing mechanism. Recently, Grossman et al. reported using the down beating signals of two tACS signals to accomplish focused stimulation. By sending two sine waves running at slightly different high frequencies (~2kHz), they demonstrated that they can modulate a “localized” neuron group at the difference frequency of the two sine waves and at the same time avoid excitation of neurons at other locations. As a result, equivalent focusing effect was accomplished by such beating mechanism. In this work, we show neither theoretically nor experimentally the beating mechanism can produce “focusing effect” and the beating signal spread globally across the full brain. The localized modulation effect likely happened right at the electrode contact sites when the electrode contact area is small and the current is concentrated. We conclude that to accomplish noninvasive and focused stimulation at current stage the only available tool is the focused TMS system we recently demonstrated.
There is a rise in the study of functional connectivity among various cortical regions and investigations to uncover causal links between a stimulus and the corresponding neural dynamics through electrophysiological imaging of the human brain. Animal model that exhibit simplistic representations of such networks open a doorway for such investigations and are gaining rapid popularity. In this study, we investigate and compare resting state network and auditory stimulus related activity with minimal invasive technology along computational spectral analysis on a C57/BL6 based mouse model. Somatosensory, motor and visual cortex are observed to be highly active and significantly correlated (p-value<0.05). Moreover, given the spatial limitation due to small size of the mouse head, we also describe a low-cost and effective fabrication process for the mouse EEG Polyimide Based Microelectrodes (PBM) array. The easy-to-implement fabrication process involves transfer of the pattern on a copper layer of the Kapton film followed by gold electroplating and application of insulation paint. Acoustic stimulation is done by using tube extensions for avoiding electrical coupling to EEG signals. Unlike multi-electrode array type of invasive methods that are local to a cortical region, the methods established in this study can be used for examining functional connectivity analysis, neural dynamics and cortical response at a global level.
Standoff detection of dangerous chemicals like explosives, nerve gases, and harmful aerosols has continuously been an important subject due to the serious concern about terrorist threats to both overseas and homeland lives and facility. Compared with other currently available standoff optical detection techniques, like Raman, photo-thermal, laser induced breakdown spectroscopy,...etc., photoacoustic (PA) sensing has the advantages of background free and very high detection sensitivity, no need of back reflection surfaces, and 1/R instead of 1/R2 signal decay distance dependence. Furthermore, there is still a great room for PA sensitivity improvement by using different PA techniques, including lockin amplifier, employing new microphones, and microphone array techniques. Recently, we have demonstrated standoff PA detection of isopropanol vapor, solid phase TNT and RDX at a standoff distance. To further calibrate the detection sensitivity, we use nerve gas simulants that were generated and calibrated by a commercial vapor generator. For field operations, array of microphones and microphone-reflector pairs can be utilized to achieve noise rejection and signal enhancement. We have experimentally demonstrated signal enhancement and noise reduction using an array of 4 microphone/4 reflector system as well as an array of 16-microphone/1 reflector. In this work we will review and compare different standoff techniques and discuss the advantages of using different photoacoustic techniques. We will also discuss new advancement of using new types of microphone and the performance comparison of using different structure of microphone arrays and combining lock-in amplifier with acoustic arrays. Demonstration of out-door real-time operations with high power mid-IR laser and microphone array will be presented.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.