Brain Activity Characteristics of Patients With Disorders of Consciousness in the EEG Resting State Paradigm: A Review.

The assessment of the level of consciousness in disorders of consciousness (DoC) is still one of the most challenging problems in contemporary medicine. Nevertheless, based on the multitude of studies conducted over the last 20 years on resting states based on electroencephalography (EEG) in DoC, it is possible to outline the brain activity profiles related to both patients without preserved consciousness and minimally conscious ones. In the case of patients without preserved consciousness, the dominance of low, mostly delta, frequency, and the marginalization of the higher frequencies were observed, both in terms of the global power of brain activity and in functional connectivity patterns.

Event-related potentials in the odd-ball paradigm and behavioral scales for the assessment of children and adolescents with disorders of consciousness: A proof of concept study.

Objective: Quantification of signatures of conscious processing in children with disorders of consciousness (DoC) using odd-ball paradigms in multiple modalities.

Method: We review the diagnostic approaches available in the field, from clinical scales to neuroimaging methods, and concentrate upon measures derived from electroencephalographic event related potentials.

Results: Evoked potentials were recorded in five procedures, encompassing visual, auditory and tactile modalities, from ten pediatric DoC patients-six in a minimally conscious state (MCS), three in unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS) and one who emerged from MCS (eMCS)-and the control group of 10 healthy children.

Parametric Description of EEG Profiles for Assessment of Sleep Architecture in Disorders of Consciousness.

We propose a fully parametric approach to the assessment of sleep architecture, based upon the classical electroencephalographic criteria, applicable also to the recordings of patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC). Sleep spindles and slow waves are automatically detected from the matching pursuit decomposition of overnight EEG recordings. Their evolution can be presented in the form of EEG profiles, yielding a continuous description of sleep architecture, compatible with the classical criteria used in sleep staging.

Assessment of Statistically Significant Command-Following in Pediatric Patients with Disorders of Consciousness, Based on Visual, Auditory and Tactile Event-Related Potentials.

Disorders of consciousness (DOC) are among the major challenges of contemporary medicine, mostly due to the high rates of misdiagnoses in clinical assessment, based on behavioral scales. This turns our attention to potentially objective neuroimaging methods. Paradigms based on electroencephalography (EEG) are most suited for bedside applications, but sensitive to artifacts.

Complex Modulation Method for Measuring Cross-Frequency Coupling of Neural Oscillations.

There is growing evidence from human intracranial electrocorticography (ECoG) studies that interactions between cortical frequencies are important for sensory perception, cognition and inter-regional neuronal communication. Recent studies have focused mainly on the strength of phase-amplitude coupling in cross-frequency interactions. Here, we introduce a complex modulation method based on measures of coherence to investigate cross-frequency coupling in the neural time series.

Integrated trimodal SSEP experimental setup for visual, auditory and tactile stimulation.

Objective: Steady-state evoked potentials (SSEPs), the brain responses to repetitive stimulation, are commonly used in both clinical practice and scientific research. Particular brain mechanisms underlying SSEPs in different modalities (i.e.

Spindles in Svarog: framework and software for parametrization of EEG transients.

We present a complete framework for time-frequency parametrization of EEG transients, based upon matching pursuit (MP) decomposition, applied to the detection of sleep spindles. Ranges of spindles duration (>0.5 s) and frequency (11-16 Hz) are taken directly from their standard definitions.