Microstate Features Research Articles

Cortical hypoactivation of frontal areas modulate resting EEG microstates in children with ADHD

BackgroundThe present study examined EEG microstate alterations and their neural generators during resting state in children with ADHD to explore a potential state biomarker. MethodsA total of seventy-six participants, thirty-eight each, combined type ADHD, and neurotypical children (NC) participated in the study. Five-minute resting (eyes open) 128 channel eeg data were acquired and two-minute clean EEG data were analyzed for microstates, its sources and connectivity in both the groups. Between groups comparisons were done for microstate parameters using modified k means clustering in Cartool software. Further, the cortical sources and functional connectivity of significant microstate maps were explored using LORETA software. Subsequently microstate parameters were correlated with the behavioral scores from Conner’s parent rating scale. ResultsAmong the microstate parameters examined, children with ADHD displayed significant difference (p<0.05) in time frames and time coverage of map B (decreased) and transition probability of map D (increased) respectively. Interestingly, source analysis of both microstate maps showed hypoactivation of frontal areas predominantly while functional connectivity showed hyperconnectivity between medial frontal gyrus and anterior cingulate gyrus (executive function area) for map B and hypoconnectivity between medial frontal gyrus and middle temporal gyrus (both are suggested to be part of DMN areas) for map D. Further CSD values of map B was found to be correlated with executive function scores of conners questionnaire. ConclusionEEG microstate features, alongside source and connectivity measures, could discern children with ADHD from neurotypical controls. The hypoactivation of predominantly frontal areas and its connectivity was found to determine microstate maps.

RSBagging: An ensemble classifier detecting the after-effects of ischemic stroke through EEG connectivity and microstates.

Stroke can lead to significant after-effects, including motor function impairments, language impairments (aphasia), disorders of consciousness (DoC), and cognitive deficits. Computer-aided analysis of EEG connectivity matrices and microstates from bedside EEG monitoring can replace traditional clinical observation methods, offering an automatic approach to monitoring the progression of these after-effects. This EEG-based method also enables quicker and more efficient assessments for medical practitioners. In this study, we employed Functional Connectivity features that extract spatial representation and Microstate features that focus on the time domain representation to monitor the after-effects of ischemic stroke patients. As the dataset from stroke patients is heavily imbalanced across various clinical after-effects conditions, we designed an ensemble classifier, RSBagging, to address the issue of classifiers often favoring the majority classes in the classification of imbalanced datasets. The experimental results demonstrate that different connectivity matrices are effective for three classification tasks: consciousness level, motor disturbance, and stroke location. Using our RSBagging model, all three tasks achieve over 98% accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and F1-score, significantly outperforming the existing classifiers SVM, XGBoost, and Random Forest. Therefore, the RSBagging classifier based on connectivity matrices offers an effective method for monitoring the after-effects in stroke patients.

Common and differential EEG microstate of major depressive disorder patients with and without response to rTMS treatment

ObjectiveRepetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has recently emerged as a novel treatment option for patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), but clinical observations reveal variability in patient's responses to rTMS. Therefore, it is clinically significant to investigate the baseline neuroimaging differences between patients with (Responder) and without (NonResponder) response to rTMS treatment and predict rTMS treatment outcomes based on baseline neuroimaging data. MethodBaseline resting-state EEG data and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were collected from 74 rTMS Responder, 43 NonResponder, and 47 matched healthy controls (HC). EEG microstate analysis was applied to analyze common and differential microstate characteristics of Responder and NonResponder. In addition, the microstate temporal parameters were sent to four machine learning models to classify Responder from NonResponder. ResultThere exists some common and differential EEG microstate characteristics for Responder and NonResponder. Specifically, compared to the HC group, both Responder and NonResponder exhibited a significant increase in the occurrence of microstate A. Only Responder showed an increase in the coverage of microstate A, occurrence of microstate D, transition probability (TP) from A to D, D to A, and C to A, and a decrease in the duration of microstates B and E, TP from A to B and C to B compared to HC. Only NonResponder exhibited a significant decrease in the duration of microstate D, TP from C to D, and an increase in the occurrence of microstate E, TP from C to E compared to HC. The primary differences between the Responder and NonResponder are that Responder had higher parameters for microstate D, TP from other microstates to D, and lower parameters for microstate E, TP from other microstates to E compared to NonResponder. Baseline parameters of microstate D showed significant correlation with Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) reduction rate. Additionally, these microstate features were sent to four machine learning models to predict rTMS treatment response and classification results indicate that an excellent predicting performance (accuracy = 97.35 %, precision = 96.31 %, recall = 100 %, F1 score = 98.06 %) was obtained when using AdaBoost model. These results suggest that baseline resting-state EEG microstate parameters could serve as robust indicators for predicting the effectiveness of rTMS treatment. ConclusionThis study reveals significant baseline EEG microstate differences between rTMS Responder, NonResponder, and healthy controls. Microstates D and E in baseline EEG can serve as potential biomarkers for predicting rTMS treatment outcomes in MDD patients. These findings may aid in identifying patients likely to respond to rTMS, optimizing treatment plans and reducing trial-and-error approaches in therapy selection.

Electroencephalography microstate alterations reflect potential double-edged cognitive adaptation in Ménière's disease.

To explore the microstate characteristics and underlying brain network activity of Ménière's disease (MD) patients based on high-density electroencephalography (EEG), elucidate the association between microstate dynamics and clinical manifestation, and explore the potential of EEG microstate features as future neurobiomarkers for MD. Thirty-two patients diagnosed with MD and 29 healthy controls (HC) matched for demographic characteristics were included in the study. Dysfunction and subjective symptom severity were assessed by neuropsychological questionnaires, pure tone audiometry, and vestibular function tests. Resting-state EEG recordings were obtained using a 256-channel EEG system, and the electric field topographies were clustered into four dominant microstate classes (A, B, C, and D). The dynamic parameters of each microstate were analyzed and utilized as input for a support vector machine (SVM) classifier to identify significant microstate signatures associated with MD. The clinical significance was further explored through Spearman correlation analysis. MD patients exhibited an increased presence of microstate class C and a decreased frequency of transitions between microstate class A and B, as well as between class A and D. The transitions from microstate class A to C were also elevated. Further analysis revealed a positive correlation between equilibrium scores and the transitions from microstate class A to C under somatosensory challenging conditions. Conversely, transitions between class A and B were negatively correlated with vertigo symptoms. No significant correlations were detected between these characteristics and auditory test results or emotional scores. Utilizing the microstate features identified via sequential backward selection, the linear SVM classifier achieved a sensitivity of 86.21% and a specificity of 90.61% in distinguishing MD patients from HC. We identified several EEG microstate characteristics in MD patients that facilitate postural control yet exacerbate subjective symptoms, and effectively discriminate MD from HC. The microstate features may offer a new approach for optimizing cognitive compensation strategies and exploring potential neurobiological markers in MD.

Analysis of microstate features for Parkinson's disease based on reliability validation

BackgroundParkinson's disease (PD) is a disorder with abnormal changes in brain activity. The lack of objective indicators makes the assessment of PD progression difficult. Assessment of brain activity changes in PD may offer a potential solution. New methodElectroencephalogram (EEG) microstates reflect global dynamic changes in the brain. Therefore, we utilized microstates to assess changes in PD brain activity. However, the effect of epoch duration on the reliability of microstate analyses in PD is unclear. Thus, we first assessed the effect of data duration on the reliability of microstate topography and temporal features in PD and older healthy individuals. According to the reliability assessment, EEG epochs with high reliability were selected for microstate analysis in PD. Finally, we investigated the correlation between microstate features and clinical scales to determine whether these features could serve as objective indicators to evaluate PD progression. ResultsMicrostate analysis features that show high reliability for 3 min and above epoch durations. The topology of microstate D was significantly changed in PD compared to healthy controls, as well as the temporal features of microstates C and D. Additionally, the occurrence of C was negatively correlated with MoCA, and the duration of D was positively correlated with UPDRS. Comparison with existing method(s)High reliability of PD microstate features obtained by our approach. ConclusionEEG for PD microstate analysis should be at least 3 min. Microstate analysis is expected to provide new ideas and objective indicators for assessing Parkinson's disease progression in the clinical setting.

Emotion recognition based on microstate analysis from temporal and spatial patterns of electroencephalogram.

Recently, the microstate analysis method has been widely used to investigate the temporal and spatial dynamics of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. However, most studies have focused on EEG at resting state, and few use microstate analysis to study emotional EEG. This paper aims to investigate the temporal and spatial patterns of EEG in emotional states, and the specific neurophysiological significance of microstates during the emotion cognitive process, and further explore the feasibility and effectiveness of applying the microstate analysis to emotion recognition. We proposed a KLGEV-criterion-based microstate analysis method, which can automatically and adaptively identify the optimal number of microstates in emotional EEG. The extracted temporal and spatial microstate features then served as novel feature sets to improve the performance of EEG emotion recognition. We evaluated the proposed method on two publicly available emotional EEG datasets: the SJTU Emotion EEG Dataset (SEED) and the Database for Emotion Analysis using Physiological Signals (DEAP). For the SEED dataset, 10 microstates were identified using the proposed method. These temporal and spatial features were fed into AutoGluon, an open-source automatic machine learning model, yielding an average three-class accuracy of 70.38% (±8.03%) in subject-dependent emotion recognition. For the DEAP dataset, the method identified 9 microstates. The average accuracy in the arousal dimension was 74.33% (±5.17%) and 75.49% (±5.70%) in the valence dimension, which were competitive performance compared to some previous machine-learning-based studies. Based on these results, we further discussed the neurophysiological relationship between specific microstates and emotions, which broaden our knowledge of the interpretability of EEG microstates. In particular, we found that arousal ratings were positively correlated with the activity of microstate C (anterior regions of default mode network) and negatively correlated with the activity of microstate D (dorsal attention network), while valence ratings were positively correlated with the activity of microstate B (visual network) and negatively correlated with the activity of microstate D (dorsal attention network). In summary, the findings in this paper indicate that the proposed KLGEV-criterion-based method can be employed to research emotional EEG signals effectively, and the microstate features are promising feature sets for EEG-based emotion recognition.

Switching of brain networks across different cerebral perfusion states: insights from EEG dynamic microstate analyses.

The alteration of neural interactions across different cerebral perfusion states remains unclear. This study aimed to fulfill this gap by examining the longitudinal brain dynamic information interactions before and after cerebral reperfusion. Electroencephalogram in eyes-closed state at baseline and postoperative 7-d and 3-month follow-ups (moyamoya disease: 20, health controls: 23) were recorded. Dynamic network analyses were focused on the features and networks of electroencephalogram microstates across different microstates and perfusion states. Considering the microstate features, the parameters were disturbed of microstate B, C, and D but preserved of microstate A. The transition probabilities of microstates A-B and B-D were increased to play a complementary role across different perfusion states. Moreover, the microstate variability was decreased, but was significantly improved after cerebral reperfusion. Regarding microstate networks, the functional connectivity strengths were declined, mainly within frontal, parietal, and occipital lobes and between parietal and occipital lobes in different perfusion states, but were ameliorated after cerebral reperfusion. This study elucidates how dynamic interaction patterns of brain neurons change after cerebral reperfusion, which allows for the observation of brain network transitions across various perfusion states in a live clinical setting through direct intervention.

EEG microstates show different features in focal epilepsy and psychogenic nonepileptic seizures.

Electroencephalography (EEG) microstate analysis seeks to cluster the scalp's electric field into semistable topographical EEG activity maps at different time points. Our study aimed to investigate the features of EEG microstates in subjects with focal epilepsy and psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES). We included 62 adult subjects with focal epilepsy or PNES who received video-EEG monitoring at the epilepsy monitoring unit. The subjects (mean age = 42.8 ± 21.2 years) were distributed equally between epilepsy and PNES groups. We extracted microstates from a 4.4 ± 1.0-min, 21-channel resting-state EEG. We excluded subjects with interictal epileptiform discharges during resting-state EEGs. After preprocessing, we derived five main EEG microstates-MS1 to MS5-for the full frequency band (1-30 Hz) and frequency subbands (delta, 1-4 Hz; theta, 4-8 Hz; alpha, 8-12 Hz; beta, 12-30 Hz), using the MATLAB-based EEGLAB toolkit. Statistical features of microstates (duration, occurrence, contribution, global field power [GFP]) were compared between the groups, using logistic regression corrected for age and sex. We detected no differences in microstate parameters in the full frequency band. We found a longer duration (delta: B = -7.680, p = .046; theta: B = -16.200, p = .043) and a higher contribution (delta: B = -7.414, p = .035; theta: B = -7.509, p = .031) of MS4 in lower frequency bands in the epilepsy group. The PNES group showed a higher occurrence of MS5 in the delta subband (B = 3.283, p = .032). In the theta subband, a higher GFP of MS1 was associated with the PNES group (B = 5.674, p = .025), whereas a higher GFP of MS2 was associated with the epilepsy group (B = -6.579, p = .026). Microstate features show differences between patients with focal epilepsy and PNES. EEG microstates could be a promising parameter, helping to understand changes in brain dynamics in subjects with epilepsy, and should be explored as a potential biomarker.

Motor Imagery Recognition Based on GMM-JCSFE Model.

Features from EEG microstate models, such as time-domain statistical features and state transition probabilities, are typically manually selected based on experience. However, traditional microstate models assume abrupt transitions between states, and the classification features can vary among individuals due to personal differences. To date, both empirical and theoretical classification results of EEG microstate features have not been entirely satisfactory. Here, we introduce an enhanced feature extraction method that combines Joint label-Common and label-Specific Feature Exploration (JCSFE) with Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM) to explore microstate features. First, GMMs are employed to represent the smooth transitions of EEG spatiotemporal features within microstate models. Second, category-common and category-specific features are identified by applying regularization constraints to linear classifiers. Third, a graph regularizer is used to extract subject-invariant microstate features. Experimental results on publicly available datasets demonstrate that the proposed model effectively encodes microstate features and improves the accuracy of motor imagery recognition across subjects. The primary code is accessible for download from the website: https://github.com/liaoliao3450/GMM-JCSFE.

Resting-state EEG microstate analysis of internet gaming disorder and alcohol use disorder.

To investigate the neurophysiological aspects of addiction, the microstate characteristics of internet gaming disorder (IGD), alcohol use disorder (AUD), and healthy control (HC) groups were compared using resting-state electroencephalography (EEG). In total, 199 young adults (75 patients with IGD, 57 patients with AUD, and 67 HCs) participated in this study. We conducted EEG microstate analysis among the groups and also compared the obtained parameters with the results of psychological assessments. The global explained variance, occurrence, and coverage of microstate C were significantly lower in the AUD group than in the IGD group. Additionally, rates of transition from microstates A, B, and D to C were significantly lower in the AUD group than in the IGD group, whereas rates of transition from microstate A to B were lower in the IGD group compared to HCs. Furthermore, the occurrence of microstate C and transition from microstate B to C were negatively correlated with the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification and Behavioural Inhibition Scale score. There were significant differences in microstate characteristics among the groups, which correlated with the psychological scores. These findings suggest that microstate features can be used as neuromarkers in clinical settings to differentiate between addictive disorders and evaluate the pathophysiology of AUD and IGD.

A comprehensive prediction model of drug-refractory epilepsy based on combined clinical-EEG microstate features.

Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by recurrent seizures that significantly impact patients' quality of life. Identifying predictors is crucial for early intervention. Electroencephalography (EEG) microstates effectively describe the resting state activity of the human brain using multichannel EEG. This study aims to develop a comprehensive prediction model that integrates clinical features with EEG microstates to predict drug-refractory epilepsy (DRE). Retrospective study. This study encompassed 226 patients with epilepsy treated at the epilepsy center of a tertiary hospital between October 2020 and May 2023. Patients were categorized into DRE and non-DRE groups. All patients were randomly divided into training and testing sets. Lasso regression combined with Stepglm [both] algorithms was used to screen independent risk factors for DRE. These risk factors were used to construct models to predict the DRE. Three models were constructed: a clinical feature model, an EEG microstate model, and a comprehensive prediction model (combining clinical-EEG microstates). A series of evaluation methods was used to validate the accuracy and reliability of the prediction models. Finally, these models were visualized for display. In the training and testing sets, the comprehensive prediction model achieved the highest area under the curve values, registering 0.99 and 0.969, respectively. It was significantly superior to other models in terms of the C-index, with scores of 0.990 and 0.969, respectively. Additionally, the model recorded the lowest Brier scores of 0.034 and 0.071, respectively, and the calibration curve demonstrated good consistency between the predicted probabilities and observed outcomes. Decision curve analysis revealed that the model provided significant clinical net benefit across the threshold range, underscoring its strong clinical applicability. We visualized the comprehensive prediction model by developing a nomogram and established a user-friendly website to enable easy application of this model (https://fydxh.shinyapps.io/CE_model_of_DRE/). A comprehensive prediction model for DRE was developed, showing excellent discrimination and calibration in both the training and testing sets. This model provided an intuitive approach for assessing the risk of developing DRE in patients with epilepsy.

Cross-subject emotion EEG signal recognition based on source microstate analysis

Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals are very weak and have low spatial resolution, which has led to less satisfactory accuracy in cross-subject EEG-based emotion classification studies. Microstate analyses of EEG sources can be performed to determine the important spatiotemporal characteristics of EEG signals. Such analyses can be used to cluster rapidly changing EEG signals into multiple brain prototype topographies, fully utilizing the spatial information contained in the EEG signals and providing a neural representation for emotional dynamics. To better utilize the spatial information of brain signals, source localization analysis on the EEG signals was first conducted. Then, a microstate analysis on the source-reconstructed EEG signals is conducted to extract the microstate features of the data. We conducted source microstate analysis on the participant data from the odor-video physiological signal database (OVPD-II) dataset. The experimental results show that the source microstate feature topologies of different participants under the same emotion exhibited a high degree of correlation, which was proven by the analysis of microstate feature topographic maps and the comparison of two-dimensional feature visualization maps of the differential entropy (DE) and power spectral density (PSD). The microstate features represent more abstract emotional information and are more robust. The extracted microstate features were then used with the style transfer mapping method to transfer the feature data from the source domain to the target domain and were then used in support vector machines (SVMs) and convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for emotion recognition. The experimental results show that the cross-subject classification accuracies of the microstate features in SVMs were 84.90 ± 8.24% and 87.43 ± 7.54%, which were 7.19 and 6.95% higher than those obtained with the PSD and 0.51 and 1.79% higher than those obtained with the DE features. In CNN, the average cross-subject classification accuracies of the microstate features were 86.44 and 91.49%, which were 7.71 and 19.41% higher than those obtained with the PSD and 2.7 and 11.76% higher than those obtained with the DE features.

Brain microstate spatio-temporal dynamics as a candidate endotype of consciousness

Consciousness can be defined as a phenomenological experience continuously evolving. Current research showed how conscious mental activity can be subdivided into a series of atomic brain states converging to a discrete spatiotemporal pattern of global neuronal firing. Using the high temporal resolution of EEG recordings in patients with a severe Acquired Brain Injury (sABI) admitted to an Intensive Rehabilitation Unit (IRU), we detected a novel endotype of consciousness from the spatiotemporal brain dynamics identified via microstate analysis. Also, we investigated whether microstate features were associated with common neurophysiological alterations. Finally, the prognostic information comprised in such descriptors was analysed in a sub-cohort of patients with prolonged Disorder of Consciousness (pDoC). Occurrence of frontally-oriented microstates (C microstate), likelihood of maintaining such brain state or transitioning to the C topography and complexity were found to be indicators of consciousness presence and levels. Features of left–right asymmetric microstates and transitions toward them were found to be negatively correlated with antero-posterior brain reorganization and EEG symmetry. Substantial differences in microstates’ sequence complexity and presence of C topography were found between groups of patients with alpha dominant background, cortical reactivity and antero-posterior gradient. Also, transitioning from left-right to antero-posterior microstates was found to be an independent predictor of consciousness recovery, stronger than consciousness levels at IRU’s admission. In conclusions, global brain dynamics measured with scale-free estimators can be considered an indicator of consciousness presence and a candidate marker of short-term recovery in patients with a pDoC.

Resting-state EEG Microstate Features Can Quantitatively Predict Autistic Traits in Typically Developing Individuals.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is not a discrete disorder and that symptoms of ASD (i.e., so-called "autistic traits") are found to varying degrees in the general population. Typically developing individuals with sub-clinical yet high-level autistic traits have similar abnormities both in behavioral performances and cortical activation patterns to individuals diagnosed with ASD. Thus it's crucial to develop objective and efficient tools that could be used in the assessment of autistic traits. Here, we proposed a novel machine learning-based assessment of the autistic traits using EEG microstate features derived from a brief resting-state EEG recording. The results showed that: (1) through the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) algorithm and correlation analysis, the mean duration of microstate class D, the occurrence rate of microstate class A, the time coverage of microstate class D and the transition rate from microstate class B to D were selected to be crucial microstate features which could be used in autistic traits prediction; (2) in the support vector regression (SVR) model, which was constructed to predict the participants' autistic trait scores using these four microstate features, the out-of-sample predicted autistic trait scores showed a significant and good match with the self-reported scores. These results suggest that the resting-state EEG microstate analysis technique can be used to predict autistic trait to some extent.

Resting-state EEG microstates as electrophysiological biomarkers in post-stroke disorder of consciousness.

Ischemic stroke patients commonly experience disorder of consciousness (DOC), leading to poorer discharge outcomes and higher mortality risks. Therefore, the identification of applicable electrophysiological biomarkers is crucial for the rapid diagnosis and evaluation of post-stroke disorder of consciousness (PS-DOC), while providing supportive evidence for cerebral neurology. In our study, we conduct microstate analysis on resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) of 28 post-stroke patients with awake consciousness and 28 patients with PS-DOC, calculating the temporal features of microstates. Furthermore, we extract the Lempel-Ziv complexity of microstate sequences and the delta/alpha power ratio of EEG on spectral. Statistical analysis is performed to examine the distinctions in features between the two groups, followed by inputting the distinctive features into a support vector machine for the classification of PS-DOC. Both groups obtain four optimal topographies of EEG microstates, but notable distinctions are observed in microstate C. Within the PS-DOC group, there is a significant increase in the mean duration and coverage of microstates B and C, whereas microstate D displays a contrasting trend. Additionally, noteworthy variations are found in the delta/alpha ratio and Lempel-Ziv complexity between the two groups. The integration of the delta/alpha ratio with microstates' temporal and Lempel-Ziv complexity features demonstrates the highest performance in the classifier (Accuracy = 91.07%). Our results suggest that EEG microstates can provide insights into the abnormal brain network dynamics in DOC patients post-stroke. Integrating the temporal and Lempel-Ziv complexity microstate features with spectral features offers a deeper understanding of the neuro mechanisms underlying brain damage in patients with DOC, holding promise as effective electrophysiological biomarkers for diagnosing PS-DOC.

Preoperative resting-state microstate as a marker for chronic pain after breast cancer surgery.

Chronic postoperative pain poses challenges, emphasizing the importance of accurately predicting pain in advance. Generally, pain perception is associated with the temporal dynamics of the brain, which can be represented by microstates. Specifically, microstates are transient and patterned brain topographies formed by temporally overlapping and spatially synchronized oscillatory activities. Consequently, by characterizing brain activity, microstates offer valuable insights into pain perception. In this prospective study, 66 female patients undergoing breast cancer surgery were included. Their preoperative resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. Preoperative resting-state EEG was recorded and four specific brain microstates (labeled as A, B, C, and D) were extracted. Temporal characteristics were then analyzed from these microstates. Patients were classified into two groups based on their Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) scores at three months postoperatively. Those with NRS scores ranging from 4 to 10 were classified as the high pain group, while patients with NRS ranging from 0 to 3 were classified as the lowpain group. Statistical analyses were performed to compare the microstate characteristics between these two groups. Twenty-one patients (32%) were classified as the high pain group and forty-five (68%) as the low-pain group. The occurrence and coverage of microstate C were significantly higher in the high pain group. Additionally, there were significant differences in the microstates transitions between the two groups. Furthermore, the study revealed a positive correlation between the coverage of microstate C and the NRS. Preoperative resting-state microstate features have shown correlations with postoperative pain. This study presents a novel and advanced perspective on the potential of microstates as a marker for postoperative pain.

Electroencephalographic microstates in vestibular schwannoma patients with tinnitus

To explore the biomarkers of tinnitus in vestibular schwannoma patients using electroencephalographic (EEG) microstate technology. The EEG and clinical data of 41 patients with vestibular schwannoma were collected. All the patients were evaluated by SAS, SDS, THI and VAS scales. The EEG acquisition time was 10-15 min, and the EEG data were preprocessed and analyzed using MATLAB and EEGLAB software package. Of the 41 patients with vestibular schwannoma, 29 patients had tinnitus and 12 did not have tinnitus, and their clinical parameters were comparable. The average global explanation variances of the non-tinnitus and tinnitus groups were 78.8% and 80.1%, respectively. The results of EEG microstate analysis showed that compared with those without tinnitus, the patients with tinnitus had an increased frequency (P=0.033) and contribution (P=0.028) of microstate C. Correlation analysis showed that THI scale scores of the patients were negatively correlated with the duration of microstate A (R=-0.435, P=0.018) and positively with the frequencies of microstate B (R=0.456, P=0.013) and microstate C (R=0.412, P=0.026). Syntax analysis showed that the probability of transition from microstate C to microstate B increased significantly in vestibular schwannoma patients with tinnitus (P=0.031). EEG microstate features differ significantly between vestibular schwannoma patients with and without tinnitus. This abnormality in patients with tinnitus may reflect the potential abnormality in the allocation of neural resources and the transition of brain functional activity.

EEG Microstates as a Signature of Hemispheric Lateralization in Stroke

Stroke recovery trajectories vary substantially. The need for tracking and prognostic biomarkers in stroke is utmost for prognostic and rehabilitative goals: electroencephalography (EEG) advanced signal analysis may provide useful tools toward this aim. EEG microstates quantify changes in configuration of neuronal generators of short-lasting periods of coordinated synchronized communication within large-scale brain networks: this feature is expected to be impaired in stroke. To characterize the spatio-temporal signatures of EEG microstates in stroke survivors in the acute/subacute phase, EEG microstate analysis was performed in 51 first-ever ischemic stroke survivors [(28–82) years, 24 with right hemisphere (RH) lesion] who underwent a resting-state EEG recording in the acute and subacute phase (from 48 h up to 42 days after the event). Microstates were characterized based on 4 parameters: global explained variance (GEV), mean duration, occurrences per second, and percentage of coverage. Wilcoxon Rank Sum tests were performed to compare features of each microstate across the two groups [i.e., left hemisphere (LH) and right hemisphere (RH) stroke survivors]. The canonical microstate map D, characterized by a mostly frontal topography, displayed greater GEV, occurrence per second, and percentage of coverage in LH than in RH stroke survivors (p < 0.05). The EEG microstate map B, with a left-frontal to right-posterior topography, and F, with an occipital-to-frontal topography, exhibited a greater GEV in RH than in LH stroke survivors (p = 0.015). EEG microstates identified specific topographic maps which characterize stroke survivors’ lesioned hemisphere in the acute and early subacute phase. Microstate features offer an additional tool to identify different neural reorganization.

Fusion of Spatial, Temporal, and Spectral EEG Signatures Improves Multilevel Cognitive Load Prediction

Cognitive load prediction is one of the most important issues in the nascent field of neuroergonomics, and it has significant value in real-world applications. Most of the previous studies of cognitive load prediction only utilized electroencephalography (EEG)-based spectral signatures or interchannel connectivity, ignoring abundant temporal microstate features, which may represent the transient topologies of EEG signals. Furthermore, previous studies have mostly focused on the binary-level classification of cognitive load for single-type cognitive tasks. To date, there are few studies on the multilevel prediction of cognitive load during mixed cognitive tasks. Here, we first designed a new paradigm termed the “finding fault game,” mixing multiple tasks of memory, counting, and visual search, and then developed a multidimensional analysis framework to improve cognitive load prediction using a fusion of spatial, temporal, and spectral EEG features. Specifically, EEG-based functional connectivity, microstates and power spectral densities (PSD) were calculated for three cognitive load levels. Twelve adult subjects participated in the study. The experimental results show that increased cognitive load was associated with elevated theta and degraded alpha power and significant changes in interchannel connectivity and microstates, and that fusing the three types of EEG features improved the performance of three-level cognitive load prediction, achieving the accuracies of greater than 80% in the cross-validation, real-time, and over-time prediction. The findings suggest that all three types of EEG features can serve as signatures of cognitive load and that their fusion can improve multilevel prediction.

EEG-Based Emotion Identification Using 1-D Deep Residual Shrinkage Network With Microstate Features

Previous studies on emotion identification from electroencephalogram (EEG) mostly focused on normal and depressed people. However, hearing-impaired subjects may require emotional identification due to their chronic lack of perception of auditory information. In this article, we designed an experiment to collect EEG signals from 15 hearing-impaired subjects when they are watching the four kinds of emotional movie clips (happiness, calmness, sadness, and fear). The novel <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${K}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -means method is used to extract the ten kinds of microstates (as A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and J) from the raw EEG signal, and then the new EEG single will be retrofitted by those ten microstates. For feature extraction, six kinds of microstate features (global explained variance (GEV), GEV total (GEVT), global field power (GFP), coverage, duration, and occurrence) are calculated. To classify the microstate features, a 1-D deep residual shrinkage network (1-D-DRSN) is utilized, which can filter the emotional irrelevant noise information, and capture emotional representational information. Experimental results show that the proposed model can significantly improve performance compared with other machine learning methods, with an average accuracy of 87.48%. Moreover, we explore different combinations of microstate features to reduce redundant information, and the combination of occurrence, GEV, and coverage reaches 90.15%. From the exploration of each microstate, we find that microstate C has the advantage with an average accuracy of 49.07%.