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Brain Dev 2022 Jun 16. Epub 2022 Jun 16.

Department of Neurology, Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, China; National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, China International Science and Technology Cooperation Base of Child Development and Critical Disorders, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Pediatrics, Chongqing, China.

Purpose: Infantile spasm-like paroxysms are often difficult to classify as epileptic or non-epileptic. We aimed to study spontaneously relieved (non-epileptic) spasms of infancy in sleep. Elucidation of the electroclinical characteristics and differential diagnoses of such spasms could facilitate accurate diagnosis in the future. Read More

Brain Stimul 2022 May-Jun;15(3):833-842. Epub 2022 May 27.

Neuroimaging Research Branch, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Intramural Research Program, Baltimore, MD, USA. Electronic address:

Background: Theta burst stimulation (TBS) is an efficient noninvasive neuromodulation paradigm that has been widely adopted, clinically. However, the efficacy of TBS treatment remains similarly modest as conventional 10 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS).

Objective/hypothesis: To develop a new TBS paradigm that enhances the effects of TMS administration while maintaining high time-efficiency. Read More

Int J Gen Med 2022 8;15:3865-3877. Epub 2022 Apr 8.

Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine (for Girls), Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.

Background: Alterations of heart rate variability (HRV) in epileptic patients were the field of interest of several studies for many reasons, particularly the contribution toward sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP).

Aim: We aimed at evaluation of autonomic dysfunction in epileptic patients during awake and sleep in addition to studying the association between SUDEP risk with different Holter parameters.

Patients And Methods: The study included eighty epileptic patients (40 controlled epileptic patients and 40 refractory epileptic patients) compared to 30 volunteers as control group. Read More

Epilepsia 2022 Apr 13. Epub 2022 Apr 13.

Departments of Neurology and Physiology & Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA.

Objective: Anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL) is a widely performed and successful intervention for drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). However, up to one third of patients experience seizure recurrence within 1 year after ATL. Despite the extensive literature on presurgical electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) abnormalities to prognosticate seizure freedom following ATL, the value of quantitative analysis of visually reviewed normal interictal EEG in such prognostication remains unclear. Read More

Neuroimage 2022 Aug 29;256:119156. Epub 2022 Mar 29.

Functional Brain Mapping Laboratory, Department of Basic Neurosciences, University of Geneva, Campus Biotech, Switzerland; CIBM Center for Biomedical Imaging, Geneva, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Evidence suggests that the stream of consciousness is parsed into transient brain states manifesting themselves as discrete spatiotemporal patterns of global neuronal activity. Electroencephalographical (EEG) microstates are proposed as the neurophysiological correlates of these transiently stable brain states that last for fractions of seconds. To further understand the link between EEG microstate dynamics and consciousness, we continuously recorded high-density EEG in 23 surgical patients from their awake state to unconsciousness, induced by step-wise increasing concentrations of the intravenous anesthetic propofol. Read More

Nat Sci Sleep 2022 1;14:335-346. Epub 2022 Mar 1.

Department of Pediatrics, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.

Objective: Sleep is necessary for brain maturation in infants. Perinatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a major cause of chronic neurological disease in infants. Although the developmental changes of electroencephalogram (EEG) in human newborns have been described, little is known about the EEG normal maturation characteristics in rodents and the changes in sleep-awake states caused by hypoxia-ischemia (HI). Read More

J Neural Eng 2022 02 8;19(1). Epub 2022 Feb 8.

Bioelectronics Neurophysiology and Engineering Laboratory, Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States of America.

Electrical deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an established treatment for patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. Sleep disorders are common in people with epilepsy, and DBS may actually further disturb normal sleep patterns and sleep quality. Novel implantable devices capable of DBS and streaming of continuous intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) signals enable detailed assessments of therapy efficacy and tracking of sleep related comorbidities. Read More

Epilepsy Res 2021 12 7;178:106809. Epub 2021 Nov 7.

David Geffen School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of California Los Angeles, United States.

Objective: Delta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling in EEG is useful for localizing epileptic sources and to evaluate severity in children with infantile spasms. We (1) develop an automated EEG preprocessing pipeline to clean data using artifact subspace reconstruction (ASR) and independent component (IC) analysis (ICA) and (2) evaluate delta-gamma modulation index (MI) as a method to distinguish children with epileptic spasms (cases) from normal controls during sleep and awake.

Methods: Using 400 scalp EEG datasets (200 sleep, 200 awake) from 100 subjects, we calculated MI after applying high-pass and line-noise filters (Clean 0), and after ASR followed by either conservative (Clean 1) or stringent (Clean 2) artifactual IC rejection. Read More

Neuroimage 2021 12 10;245:118720. Epub 2021 Nov 10.

Center for Cognition and Neuroergonomics, State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai 519087, China; State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China. Electronic address:

Accurate localization of brain regions responsible for language and cognitive functions in epilepsy patients is important. Electrocorticography (ECoG)-based real-time functional mapping (RTFM) has been shown to be a safer alternative to electrical cortical stimulation mapping (ESM), which is currently the clinical/gold standard. Conventional methods for analyzing RTFM data mostly account for the ECoG signal in certain frequency bands, especially high gamma. Read More

PLoS One 2021 14;16(9):e0257467. Epub 2021 Sep 14.

Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, College of Medicine, Ewha Womans University, Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

The aim of this study is to compare the effects of neuromuscular blockade (NMB) on phase lag entropy (PLE) and the bispectral index (BIS). We recorded the BIS, electromyograph (EMG) activity on a BIS monitor (EMG_BIS), PLE, and EMG activity on a PLE monitor (EMG_PLE) in 40 patients receiving general anesthesia. During the awake state, we analyzed the changes in parameters before and 2 min after the eyes were closed. Read More

Paediatr Anaesth 2021 Nov 24;31(11):1179-1186. Epub 2021 Sep 24.

Department of Anesthesiology, University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine, Burlington, Vermont, USA.

Introduction: Spinal anesthesia is utilized as an alternative to general anesthesia in infants for some surgeries. After spinal anesthesia, infants often become less conscious without administration of sedative medications. The aim of this study was to assess electroencephalographic (EEG) correlates after spinal anesthesia in a cohort of infants. Read More

Eye (Lond) 2021 09 16;35(9):2438-2448. Epub 2021 Jul 16.

Genetics and Genomic Medicine, Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, UK.

Background: Late infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (CLN2 Batten disease) is a rare, progressive neurodegenerative disease of childhood. The natural history of motor and language regression is used to monitor the efficacy of CNS treatments. Less is known about CLN2 retinopathy. Read More

Brain Commun 2021 14;3(2):fcab102. Epub 2021 May 14.

Mayo Systems Electrophysiology Laboratory, Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.

Routine scalp EEG is essential in the clinical diagnosis and management of epilepsy. However, a normal scalp EEG (based on expert visual review) recorded from a patient with epilepsy can cause delays in diagnosis and clinical care delivery. Here, we investigated whether normal EEGs might contain subtle electrophysiological clues of epilepsy. Read More

Clin Neurophysiol 2021 07 1;132(7):1550-1563. Epub 2021 Apr 1.

Wilder Center for Epilepsy Research, University of Florida, USA.

Objective: We recently proposed a spectrum-based model of the awake intracranial electroencephalogram (iEEG) (Kalamangalam et al., 2020), based on a publicly-available normative database (Frauscher et al., 2018). Read More

Elife 2021 05 10;10. Epub 2021 May 10.

Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States.

Understanding how the brain recovers from unconsciousness can inform neurobiological theories of consciousness and guide clinical investigation. To address this question, we conducted a multicenter study of 60 healthy humans, half of whom received general anesthesia for 3 hr and half of whom served as awake controls. We administered a battery of neurocognitive tests and recorded electroencephalography to assess cortical dynamics. Read More

Minerva Anestesiol 2021 07 14;87(7):794-802. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

Department of Thoracic Medicine, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Herston, Australia.

Background: Core body temperature (CBT) patterns associated with sleep have not been described in the critically ill. This study aimed to characterize night-time sleep and its relationship to CBT in ICU patients.

Methods: A prospective study was performed in a 27-bed tertiary adult intensive care unit of 20 mechanically ventilated patients in the weaning stage of their critical illness. Read More

BMJ Case Rep 2021 Apr 13;14(4). Epub 2021 Apr 13.

Division of Neurosurgery, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

A 24-year-old woman was referred to us for an intracranial haemorrhage in the left temporal lobe caused by a ruptured cavernous malformation; the bleeding extended over the left Heschl's gyrus and Wernicke area. On admission, the patient had global aphasia. A few days later, she spontaneously improved but remained with mild residual comprehensive dysphasia. Read More

Neurobiol Dis 2021 07 10;155:105367. Epub 2021 Apr 10.

Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DY, United Kingdom. Electronic address:

Sleep disruption is a common invisible symptom of neurological dysfunction in Huntington's disease (HD) that takes an insidious toll on well-being of patients. Here we used electroencephalography (EEG) to examine sleep in 6 year old OVT73 transgenic sheep (Ovis aries) that we used as a presymptomatic model of HD. We hypothesized that despite the lack of overt symptoms of HD at this age, early alterations of the sleep-wake pattern and EEG powers may already be present. Read More

Br J Anaesth 2021 May 24;126(5):985-995. Epub 2021 Mar 24.

Department of Anaesthesia, Waikato Clinical Campus, University of Auckland, Hamilton, New Zealand.

Background: General anaesthesia is known to enhance inhibitory synaptic transmission to produce characteristic effects on the EEG and reduction in brain metabolism secondary to reduced neuronal activity. Evidence suggests that anaesthesia might have a direct effect on synaptic metabolic processes, and this relates to anaesthesia sensitivity. We explored elements of synaptic transmission looking for possible contributions to the anaesthetised EEG and how it may modulate anaesthesia sensitivity. Read More

Epilepsy Behav 2021 04 11;117:107884. Epub 2021 Mar 11.

Department of Neurology, Epilepsy and Headache Group, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Jixi Road 218, Hefei 230022, China. Electronic address:

Background: Brainstem raphe nucleus (BRN) hypoechogenicity in transcranial sonography (TCS) has been demonstrated in patients with major depression, possibly representing a sonographic manifestation of serotonergic dysfunction in depression. Most patients with epilepsy with comorbid depression exhibit hypoechogenic BRN in TCS. However, the role of BRN in the pathogenesis of epilepsy is unclear. Read More

Neuroimage 2021 05 12;231:117850. Epub 2021 Feb 12.

Institute of Mental Health Research, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Mental Health Centre, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.

Consciousness is a mental characteristic of the human mind, whose exact neural features remain unclear. We aimed to identify the critical nodes within the brain's global functional network that support consciousness. To that end, we collected a large fMRI resting state dataset with subjects in at least one of the following three consciousness states: preserved (including the healthy awake state, and patients with a brain injury history (BI) that is fully conscious), reduced (including the N1-sleep state, and minimally conscious state), and lost (including the N3-sleep state, anesthesia, and unresponsive wakefulness state). Read More

PLoS Comput Biol 2020 12 21;16(12):e1008418. Epub 2020 Dec 21.

Department of Physics, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA.

Whether the brain operates at a critical "tipping" point is a long standing scientific question, with evidence from both cellular and systems-scale studies suggesting that the brain does sit in, or near, a critical regime. Neuroimaging studies of humans in altered states of consciousness have prompted the suggestion that maintenance of critical dynamics is necessary for the emergence of consciousness and complex cognition, and that reduced or disorganized consciousness may be associated with deviations from criticality. Unfortunately, many of the cellular-level studies reporting signs of criticality were performed in non-conscious systems (in vitro neuronal cultures) or unconscious animals (e. Read More

J Clin Sleep Med 2021 04;17(4):719-727

Sleep Disorder Unit, Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital, AP-HP, Paris, France.

Study Objectives: To determine the polysomnography characteristics during sleep paralysis, false awakenings, and lucid dreaming (which are states intermediate to rapid eye movement [REM] sleep and wake but exceptionally observed in sleep laboratory).

Methods: In 5 participants, we captured 5 episodes of sleep paralysis (2 time marked with the ocular left-right-left-right code normally used to signal lucid dreaming, 1 time marked by an external noise, and 2 retrospectively reported) and 2 episodes of false awakening. The sleep coding (using 3-second mini-epochs) and spectral electroencephalography analysis were compared during these episodes and normal REM sleep as well as wakefulness in the same 4 of 5 participants and vs lucid REM sleep in 4 other patients with narcolepsy. Read More

Seizure 2021 Jan 18;84:14-22. Epub 2020 Nov 18.

School of Medicine, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil; Division of Clinical Research from the Brain Institute (BraIns), Brazil. Electronic address:

Purpose: To describe epilepsy after congenital Zika virus infection (ZIKV) and its relationship with structural neuroimaging findings.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study in children (aged 13-42 months) who were born with microcephaly due to ZIKV infection between 2015-2017. Patients underwent a brain imaging scan (magnetic resonance) and a video-EEG study. Read More

Clin EEG Neurosci 2021 Nov 13;52(6):455-461. Epub 2020 Oct 13.

Department of Pediatrics, Neuropediatric Division, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil.

Aim: To describe the first unprovoked seizure in typically developing children, its clinical characteristics, recurrence rate, and possible risk factors in a real-life setting in Southern Brazil.

Method: In this retrospective cohort study, medical records of typically developing children aged 28 days to 14 years who had a first unprovoked seizure in a single tertiary care center were reviewed, in a 10-year period (2006-2016).

Results: Seventy-four children were included, 41 males and 33 females. Read More

Neuropsychopharmacology 2020 12 31;45(13):2219-2228. Epub 2020 Aug 31.

Department of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, 37232, USA.

Degeneration of basal forebrain cholinergic circuitry represents an early event in the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). These alterations in central cholinergic function are associated with disruptions in arousal, sleep/wake architecture, and cognition. Changes in sleep/wake architecture are also present in normal aging and may represent a significant risk factor for AD. Read More

J Neurosci 2020 09 12;40(37):7142-7154. Epub 2020 Aug 12.

Cambridge Consciousness and Cognition Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, United Kingdom.

Humans' remarkable capacity to flexibly adapt their behavior based on rapid situational changes is termed cognitive control. Intuitively, cognitive control is thought to be affected by the state of alertness; for example, when drowsy, we feel less capable of adequately implementing effortful cognitive tasks. Although scientific investigations have focused on the effects of sleep deprivation and circadian time, little is known about how natural daily fluctuations in alertness in the regular awake state affect cognitive control. Read More

Sci Rep 2020 05 21;10(1):8419. Epub 2020 May 21.

Computational Health Informatics Program, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, USA.

Childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes, previously known as Benign Epilepsy with Centro-temporal Spikes (BECTS) or Rolandic Epilepsy, is one of the most common forms of focal childhood epilepsy. Despite its prevalence, BECTS is often misdiagnosed or missed entirely. This is in part due to the nocturnal and brief nature of the seizures, making it difficult to identify during a routine electroencephalogram (EEG). Read More

Sleep 2020 11;43(11)

Center for Investigation and Research in Sleep, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland.

Feeling awake although sleep recordings indicate clear-cut sleep sometimes occurs in good sleepers and to an extreme degree in patients with so-called paradoxical insomnia. It is unknown what underlies sleep misperception, as standard polysomnographic (PSG) parameters are often normal in these cases. Here we asked whether regional changes in brain activity could account for the mismatch between objective and subjective total sleep times (TST). Read More

Clin Neurophysiol 2020 06 12;131(6):1221-1229. Epub 2020 Mar 12.

Department of Neurology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA.

Objective: Here, we investigate whether cortical activation predicts motor side effects of deep brain stimulation (DBS) and whether these potential biomarkers have utility under general anesthesia.

Methods: We recorded scalp potentials elicited by DBS during surgery (n = 11), both awake and under general anesthesia, and in an independent ambulatory cohort (n = 8). Across a range of stimulus configurations, we measured the amplitude and timing of short- and long-latency response components and linked them to motor side effects. Read More