Analysis of Volume Conduction Effects on Different Functional Connectivity Metrics: Application to Alzheimer's Disease EEG Signals

Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2019 Jul:2019:6434-6437. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2019.8856548.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of volume conduction on different connectivity metrics: Amplitude Envelope Correlation (AEC), Phase Lag Index (PLI), and Magnitude Squared Coherence (MSCOH). These measures were applied to: (i) a synthetic model of 64 coupled oscillators; and (ii) a resting-state EEG database of 72 patients with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 37 cognitively healthy controls. Our results revealed that AEC and PLI are weakly influenced by the simulated volume conduction compared to MSCOH, although the three metrics are not immune to this effect. Furthermore, results with real EEG recordings showed that AD patients are characterized by an AEC increase in δ frequency band and widespread connectivity decreases in α and β1 bands. These coupling changes reflect the abnormalities in spontaneous EEG activity of AD patients and might provide further insights into the underlying brain dynamics associated with this disorder.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alzheimer Disease*
  • Benchmarking
  • Brain
  • Electroencephalography
  • Humans