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Sci Rep 2021 Feb 18;11(1):4128. Epub 2021 Feb 18.

Bioelectrics Lab, Institute of Brain and Spine (ICM), (UMRS 1127, CNRS UMR 7225), Pitié-Salpêtriere Hospital, 47 Boulevard de l'Hôpital, 75013, Paris, France.

Clinical diagnosis of epilepsy depends heavily on the detection of interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs) from scalp electroencephalographic (EEG) signals, which by purely visual means is far from straightforward. Here, we introduce a simple signal analysis procedure based on scalp EEG zero-crossing patterns which can extract the spatiotemporal structure of scalp voltage fluctuations. We analyzed simultaneous scalp and intracranial EEG recordings from patients with pharmacoresistant temporal lobe epilepsy. Read More

Front Neurosci 2020 23;14:544472. Epub 2020 Sep 23.

Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, United States.

Studies of compensatory plasticity in early deaf (ED) individuals have mainly focused on unisensory processing, and on spatial rather than temporal coding. However, precise discrimination of the temporal relationship between stimuli is imperative for successful perception of and interaction with the complex, multimodal environment. Although the properties of cross-modal temporal processing have been extensively studied in neurotypical populations, remarkably little is known about how the loss of one sense impacts the integrity of temporal interactions among the remaining senses. Read More

Front Physiol 2020 5;11:828. Epub 2020 Aug 5.

Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

Epilepsy is one of the most common disorders of the brain. Clinically, to corroborate an epileptic seizure-like symptom and to find the seizure localization, electroencephalogram (EEG) data are often visually examined by a clinical doctor to detect the presence of epileptiform discharges. Epileptiform discharges are transient waveforms lasting for several tens to hundreds of milliseconds and are mainly divided into seven types. Read More

J Clin Neurophysiol 2020 May 28. Epub 2020 May 28.

Division of Neurology, Department of Pediatrics, BC Children's Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Purpose: Various EEG patterns emerge in drowsiness. Intermittent bilateral midfrontal slowing (BFS) and hypnogogic frontal predominant sharply contoured waveforms (HFSC), maximal at (Fz, F3-4, and Fp1-2), are often encountered. These do not meet the criteria for epileptiform discharges. Read More

Int J Environ Res Public Health 2020 04 15;17(8). Epub 2020 Apr 15.

Institution of Physical Education, Health and Leisure Studies, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701401, Taiwan.

Inhibitory control, the ability to suppress prepotent responses and resist irrelevant stimuli, is thought to play a critical role in the maintenance of obesity. However, electrophysiological performance related to different inhibitory control processes and their relationship with motor response inhibition and cognitive interference and potential biochemical mechanisms in middle-aged, obese women are as yet unclear. This work thus compared different neurocognitive Go/Nogo and Stroop task performance in healthy sedentary normal-weight and obese women, as well as their correlation with biochemical markers. Read More

Brain Nerve 2020 Apr;72(4):425-436

Division of Neurology, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine.

Electroencephalogram (EEG) reading in clinical settings commonly uses three montage types: referential montage, bipolar montage, and average montage. Since each montage type has its advantages and disadvantages, there is no single best montage. To correctly read EEG, it is essential 1) to use the montage appropriate for the focus and distribution of epileptic activity and 2) to correctly recognize EEG waveforms that are often misdiagnosed as epileptic activity. Read More

Front Hum Neurosci 2020 3;14:44. Epub 2020 Mar 3.

Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States.

Intracranial electroencephalography (IEEG) involves recording from electrodes placed directly onto the cortical surface or deep brain locations. It is performed on patients with medically refractory epilepsy, undergoing pre-surgical seizure localization. IEEG recordings, combined with advancements in computational capacity and analysis tools, have accelerated cognitive neuroscience. Read More

Front Hum Neurosci 2019 20;13:460. Epub 2020 Jan 20.

Center for Brain, Mind and KANSEI Sciences Research, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan.

Touching is a fundamental human behavior used to evaluate objects in the external world. Many previous studies have used tactile stimulation to conduct psychological and psychophysiological experiments. However, most of these studies used solid material, not water stream, as an experimental stimulus. Read More

Neuroimage 2020 04 20;210:116557. Epub 2020 Jan 20.

Department of Bioengineering and Centre for Neurotechnology, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, SW7 2AZ, London, UK. Electronic address:

Auditory cortical activity entrains to speech rhythms and has been proposed as a mechanism for online speech processing. In particular, neural activity in the theta frequency band (4-8 ​Hz) tracks the onset of syllables which may aid the parsing of a speech stream. Similarly, cortical activity in the delta band (1-4 ​Hz) entrains to the onset of words in natural speech and has been found to encode both syntactic as well as semantic information. Read More

Elife 2020 01 21;9. Epub 2020 Jan 21.

Eaton-Peabody Laboratories, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, United States.

In social settings, speech waveforms from nearby speakers mix together in our ear canals. Normally, the brain unmixes the attended speech stream from the chorus of background speakers using a combination of fast temporal processing and cognitive active listening mechanisms. Of >100,000 patient records,~10% of adults visited our clinic because of reduced hearing, only to learn that their hearing was clinically normal and should not cause communication difficulties. Read More

Zhonghua Wei Zhong Bing Ji Jiu Yi Xue 2019 Sep;31(9):1102-1107

Department of General Medicine, Hebei General Hospital, Shijiazhuang 050051, Hebei, China.

Objective: To investigate the effects of fecal microbiota transplantation on septic gut flora and the cortex cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway in rats.

Methods: Sixty clean grade male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were divided into normal saline (NS) control group, sepsis model group and fecal microbiota transplantation group by random number table, with 20 rats in each group. The rat model of sepsis was reproduced by injection of 10 mg/kg lipopolysaccharide (LPS) via tail vein, the rats in the NS control group was given the same amount of NS. Read More

Trends Hear 2019 Jan-Dec;23:2331216519871395

Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Rochester, NY, USA.

The frequency-specific tone-evoked auditory brainstem response (ABR) is an indispensable tool in both the audiology clinic and research laboratory. Most frequently, the toneburst ABR is used to estimate hearing thresholds in infants, toddlers, and other patients for whom behavioral testing is not feasible. Therefore, results of the ABR exam form the basis for decisions regarding interventions and hearing habilitation with implications extending far into the child's future. Read More

Front Neurosci 2019 26;13:469. Epub 2019 Jun 26.

Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States.

Deprived of sensory input, as in deafness, the brain tends to reorganize. Cross-modal reorganization occurs when cortices associated with deficient sensory modalities are recruited by other, intact senses for processing of the latter's sensory input. Studies have shown that this type of reorganization may affect outcomes when sensory stimulation is later introduced via intervention devices. Read More

Handb Clin Neurol 2019 ;160:103-124

Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Jacksonville, FL, United States.

After more than 85 years of development and use in clinical practice, the electroencephalogram (EEG) remains a dependable, inexpensive, and useful diagnostic tool for the investigation of the electrophysiologic activity of the brain. The advent of digital technology has led to greater sophistication and multiple software applications to extend the utility of EEG beyond the confines of the laboratory. Despite the discovery of new waveforms, basic neurophysiologic principles remain essential to the clinical care of patients. Read More

J Am Acad Audiol 2020 01 24;31(1):61-68. Epub 2019 Jun 24.

Ordre des orthophonistes et audiologistes du Québec, Polyclinique de l'Oreille - Audiosanté, Montréal, Canada.

Background: Willfully not responding to auditory stimuli hampers accurate behavioral measurements. An objective measure of covert manual suppression recorded during response tasks may be useful to assess the veracity of responses to stimuli.

Purpose: To investigate whether the lateralized readiness potential (LRP), an electrophysiological measure of corticomotor response and suppression, may be of use in determining when participants hear but do not respond to pure tones. Read More

J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 2019 10 5;20(5):489-498. Epub 2019 Jun 5.

Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery, University Medical Center Utrecht, Room G.02.531, P.O. Box 85500, 3508 GA, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Recent literature on cortical auditory evoked potentials has focused on correlations with hearing performance with the aim to develop an objective clinical tool. However, cortical responses depend on the type of stimulus and choice of stimulus parameters. This study investigates cortical auditory evoked potentials to sound changes, so-called acoustic change complexes (ACC), and the effects of varying three stimulus parameters. Read More

Psychophysiology 2019 09 21;56(9):e13394. Epub 2019 May 21.

Music College, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China.

In music, harmonic syntactic structures are organized hierarchically through local and long-distance dependencies. This study investigated whether congenital amusia, a neurodevelopmental disorder of pitch perception, is associated with impaired processing of harmonic syntactic structures. For stimuli, we used harmonic sequences containing two phrases, where the first phrase ended with a half cadence and the second with an authentic cadence. Read More

Meat Sci 2019 May 22;151:54-59. Epub 2019 Jan 22.

Department of Pathobiology and Population Sciences, Royal Veterinary College, University of London, London, United Kingdom.

The electroencephalographic (EEG) responses of 31 bulls (zebu crossbred cattle) stunned with either pneumatically powered Jarvis penetrating (PCB) or non-penetrating captive bolt (NPCB) was examined. Animals were organized into two treatment groups: PCB (n = 20); and NPCB (n = 11) stunning, both using airline pressures of 220 psi (1517 kPa). All bulls shot with PCB (n = 20/20) had patterns of EEG activity that were inconsistent with consciousness. Read More

Clin EEG Neurosci 2019 Jul 23;50(4):296-299. Epub 2019 Jan 23.

1 Section of Pediatric Epilepsy, Epilepsy Center, Department of Neurology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.

Subclinical rhythmic electrographic discharges of adult (SREDA) is a rare variant considered to be normal in EEG. It consists of sharp-contoured or sinusoidal waveforms in the theta frequency range (usually 5-7 Hz), occurring in a widespread distribution, often maximal over the parietotemporal regions. SREDA is usually bilateral but could be unilateral (atypical SREDA). Read More

Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 2019 06 22;92:31-38. Epub 2018 Dec 22.

Medical University of Innsbruck, Department of Neurology, Innsbruck, Austria.

Background: So far, no cost-efficient, widely-used biomarkers have been established to facilitate the objectivization of Alzheimer's disease (AD) diagnosis and monitoring. Research suggests that event-related potentials (ERPs) reflect neurodegenerative processes in AD and might qualify as neurophysiological AD markers.

Objectives: First, to examine which ERP component correlates the most with AD severity, as measured by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Read More

Hum Brain Mapp 2019 04 22;40(6):1718-1728. Epub 2018 Nov 22.

Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China.

Hypnosis has been shown to have treatment effects on nicotine addiction. However, the neural basis of these effects is poorly understood. This preliminary study investigated the neural mechanisms of hypnosis-based treatment on cigarette smoking, specifically, whether the hypnosis involves a top-down or bottom-up mechanism. Read More

Clin EEG Neurosci 2019 May 14;50(3):219-221. Epub 2018 Nov 14.

1 University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA.

Positive occipital sharp transients of sleep (POSTS) and lambda waves have similar morphology and location. We studied a possible association between these 2 normal EEG patterns. We reviewed a series of consecutive unselected ambulatory EEGs during a 3-month period (October 16, 2017 to January 19, 2018) and identified records with POSTS and records with lambda waves. Read More

PLoS One 2018 6;13(11):e0207158. Epub 2018 Nov 6.

Department of Neuroscience, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America.

Quantification of interictal spikes in EEG may provide insight on epilepsy disease burden, but manual quantification of spikes is time-consuming and subject to bias. We present a probability-based, automated method for the classification and quantification of interictal events, using EEG data from kainate- and saline-injected mice (C57BL/6J background) several weeks post-treatment. We first detected high-amplitude events, then projected event waveforms into Principal Components space and identified clusters of spike morphologies using a Gaussian Mixture Model. Read More

Clin Neurophysiol 2018 09 28;129(9):1796-1803. Epub 2018 Jun 28.

Department of Neurology, University of Chicago, USA.

Objective: Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE) is the most common type of focal epilepsy, but often lacks scalp EEG correlates. We ask if hippocampal epileptiform discharges that are characteristic of mTLE are associated with small sharp spikes (SSS) recorded on scalp EEG. SSS are considered benign waveforms, so are not currently used as markers of epilepsy. Read More

Hear Res 2018 09 26;367:149-160. Epub 2018 May 26.

School of Communication Sciences & Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA.

Everyday speech perception is challenged by external acoustic interferences that hinder verbal communication. Here, we directly compared how different levels of the auditory system (brainstem vs. cortex) code speech and how their neural representations are affected by two acoustic stressors: noise and reverberation. Read More

Behav Brain Res 2018 07 20;347:242-254. Epub 2018 Mar 20.

Faculty of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires, Hipólito Yrigoyen 3242, 1207, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Behavioral Biology Laboratory, Institute of Biology and Experimental Medicine, National Council of Scientific and Technical Research, Vuelta de Obligado 2490, 1428, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

This study investigates the influences of: 1) the task order of two stimulus equivalence classes (SEC) probes, and 2) the possible differences within the equivalence trial types. These factors were analyzed together on both behavioral and event-related potentials (ERP) data. Two groups of normal subjects participated in two successive sessions. Read More

Epilepsia 2018 04 20;59(4):877-884. Epub 2018 Mar 20.

Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Objective: The traditional approach to interpreting electroencephalograms (EEGs) requires physicians with formal training to visually assess the waveforms. This approach can be less practical in critical settings where a trained EEG specialist is not readily available to review the EEG and diagnose ongoing subclinical seizures, such as nonconvulsive status epilepticus.

Methods: We have developed a novel method by which EEG data are converted to sound in real time by letting the underlying electrophysiological signal modulate a voice tone that is in the audible range. Read More