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EEG indices correlate with sustained attention performance in patients affected by diffuse axonal injury

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Abstract

The aim of this study is to assess the ability of EEG-based indices in providing relevant information about cognitive engagement level during the execution of a clinical sustained attention (SA) test in healthy volunteers and DAI (diffused axonal injury)-affected patients. We computed three continuous power-based engagement indices (P β /P α , 1/P α , and P β / (P α + P θ )) from EEG recordings in a control group (n = 7) and seven DAI-affected patients executing a 10-min Conners’ “not-X” continuous performance test (CPT). A correlation analysis was performed in order to investigate the existence of relations between the EEG metrics and behavioral parameters in both the populations. P β /P α and 1/P α indices were found to be correlated with reaction times in both groups while P β / (P α + P θ ) and P β /P α also correlated with the errors rate for DAI patients. In line with previous studies, time course fluctuations revealed a first strong decrease of attention after 2 min from the beginning of the test and a final fading at the end. Our results provide evidence that EEG-derived indices extraction and evaluation during SA tasks are helpful in the assessment of attention level in healthy subjects and DAI patients, offering motivations for including EEG monitoring in cognitive rehabilitation practice.

Three EEG-derived indices were computed from four electrodes montages in a population of seven healthy volunteers and a group of seven DAI-affected patients. Results show a significant correlation between the time course of the indices and behavioral parameters, thus demonstrating their usefulness in monitoring mental engagement level during a sustained attention task.

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Acknowledgments

The present research was partially funded by the THINK&GO (POR FSE 2007/2013) project and ARTE project supported by Regione Lombardia and Fondazione Cariplo.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133, Milan, Italy

    Stefania Coelli, Riccardo Barbieri & Anna Maria Bianchi

  2. IRCCS E. Medea, Via Don Luigi Monza, 20, 23842 Bosisio Parini, Lecco, Italy

    Gianluigi Reni & Claudio Zucca

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  1. Stefania Coelli
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Correspondence to Stefania Coelli.

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Coelli, S., Barbieri, R., Reni, G. et al. EEG indices correlate with sustained attention performance in patients affected by diffuse axonal injury. Med Biol Eng Comput 56, 991–1001 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-017-1744-5

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