OBJECTIVE: To investigate the characteristics and the pathologic classification of electrical-injury nerve using somatosensory evoked potential(SEP) technique. METHODS: SEP were detected and evaluated in 12 cases with electrical-injury nerve during operation, electrical stimulation was commenced from distal side of nerve where the structure of nerve looks normal under operating microscope, up to proximal side until evoking out a stable SEP predeterminate virtual value. Pathological examination and the following functional evaluation were compared with the values of SEP. RESULTS: At the site of nerve looking normal under operating microscope, perineurium appears normal or slightly thicken. But there are obvious fibrosis and fibrotic proliferation between fascicular and intrafascicular. Vessel plexus is not seen. At SEP stabilizely evoked site, nervous construction is normal, there are visible interfascicular vessel plexus and connective tissue appears loose. Comparing SEP values with pathological section, amplitude and latency of SEP is positively correlative with the quality of nerve. Eight cases repaired with SEP technique to select the anastomosis site for nerve transplantation were followed up, two-point discrimination reached grade III (America hand surgery association criterion) within 62.5% cases. CONCLUSION: SEP technique is valuable method for functional evaluation of electrical- injury nerve which has a complicated pathology. The pathology of electrical-injury nerve can be classified into 4 types, type A: fibrosis of nerve; type B: nerve looking normal under operation microscope, perineurium appears thicken, and there are obvious fibrosis and fibrotic proliferation between fascicular and intrafascicular, vessel plexus is rarely to see; type C: nerve looks normal, lymphocyte infiltration exists and it is obvious that there are many physalis-like, retrogressive construction in the section; type D: nervous construction is normal, there are visible interfascicular vessel plexus, and connective tissue appears loose, SEP always can be stably evoked.
High-frequency steady-state asymmetric visual evoked potential (SSaVEP) provides a new paradigm for designing comfortable and practical brain-computer interface (BCI) systems. However, due to the weak amplitude and strong noise of high-frequency signals, it is of great significance to study how to enhance their signal features. In this study, a 30 Hz high-frequency visual stimulus was used, and the peripheral visual field was equally divided into eight annular sectors. Eight kinds of annular sector pairs were selected based on the mapping relationship of visual space onto the primary visual cortex (V1), and three phases (in-phase[0o, 0o], anti-phase [0o, 180o], and anti-phase [180o, 0o]) were designed for each annular sector pair to explore response intensity and signal-to-noise ratio under phase modulation. A total of 8 healthy subjects were recruited in the experiment. The results showed that three annular sector pairs exhibited significant differences in SSaVEP features under phase modulation at 30 Hz high-frequency stimulation. And the spatial feature analysis showed that the two types of features of the annular sector pair in the lower visual field were significantly higher than those in the upper visual field. This study further used the filter bank and ensemble task-related component analysis to calculate the classification accuracy of annular sector pairs under three-phase modulations, and the average accuracy was up to 91.5%, which proved that the phase-modulated SSaVEP features could be used to encode high- frequency SSaVEP. In summary, the results of this study provide new ideas for enhancing the features of high-frequency SSaVEP signals and expanding the instruction set of the traditional steady state visual evoked potential paradigm.
Objective To investigate the relationship between graded spinal cord ischemia/reperfusion injury and somatosensory evoked potentials(SEP),neurologic function score（NFS）and the histopathological changes of spinal cord. Methods Forty rabbits were randomized and equally divided into 4 groups: shamoperation group, ischemia for 30min, 45min and 60min groups. The spinal cord ischemiareperfusion injury model was created by occlusion of the abdominal aorta in rabbits. SEP was monitored before ischemia,5,10minutes after ischemia, 15, 30 minutes, 1,2, 24 and 48 hours after reperfusion. NFS was evaluated at 6,12,24 and 48 hours after reperfusion.The pathological changes of spinal cord were observed after reperfusion 48 hours. Results The pathological characters with mild,moderate and severe spinal cord ischemia/reperfusion injury could be simulated by declamping after 30， 45 and 60 minutes infrarenal aorta crossclamping. SEP amplitude returned to normal after reperfusion 15 minutes（Pgt;0.05）and SEP latency returned to normal after reperfusion 30 minutes（Pgt;0.05）during mild spinal cord ischemia/reperfusion injury.SEP amplitude returned to normal after reperfusion 30 minutes（Pgt;0.05）and SEP latency returned to normal after reperfusion 60 minutes（Pgt;0.05）during moderate spinal cord ischemia/reperfusion injury. SEP latency increased and SEP amplitude decreased during severe spinal cord ischemia/reperfusion injury,compared with other groups, there were significant differences in SEP latency and SEP amplitude by clamping the infrarenal aorta for 60min（Plt;0.01）. With graded spinal cord ischemia/reperfusion injury, compared with shamoperation group, spinal cord ischemiareperfusion groups had significant differences in NFS（Plt;0.01）. Conclusion SEP is much quicker in the recovery of amplitude than latency during spinal cord ischemia/reperfusion. SEP is a sensitive and accurate index for spinal cord function during ischemia/reperfusion injury. SEP monitoring spinal cord ischemia/reperfusion injury during operation provides experimental basis for clinical application.
Motor imaging therapy is of great significance to the rehabilitation of patients with stroke or motor dysfunction, but there are few studies on lower limb motor imagination. When electrical stimulation is applied to the posterior tibial nerve of the ankle, the steady-state somatosensory evoked potentials (SSSEP) can be induced at the electrical stimulation frequency. In order to better realize the classification of lower extremity motor imagination, improve the classification effect, and enrich the instruction set of lower extremity motor imagination, this paper designs two experimental paradigms: Motor imaging (MI) paradigm and Hybrid paradigm. The Hybrid paradigm contains electrical stimulation assistance. Ten healthy college students were recruited to complete the unilateral movement imagination task of left and right foot in two paradigms. Through time-frequency analysis and classification accuracy analysis, it is found that compared with MI paradigm, Hybrid paradigm could get obvious SSSEP and ERD features. The average classification accuracy of subjects in the Hybrid paradigm was 78.61%, which was obviously higher than the MI paradigm. It proves that electrical stimulation has a positive role in promoting the classification training of lower limb motor imagination.
ObjectiveTo evaluate the differences of visual evoked potentials (amplitudes and latency) between cerebral palsy (CP) children and normal children. MethodsThis study involved fourteen children aged from 4 to 7 years with CP (monoplegia) between 2009 and 2013. Another 14 normal children aged from 5 to 9 years treated in the Department of Ophthalmology in West China Hospital during the same period were regarded as the control group. Both eyes of all the participants were examined by multifocal visual evoked potential (mfVEP). The mfVEP examination results were recorded, and amplitude and latency were analyzed. First, we analyzed the differences of amplitudes and latency time between monoplegia children and children in the control group. Second, gross motor function classification system (GMFCS) was used to classify the fourteen monoplegia children among whom there were five GMFCS Ⅰ patients and nine GMFCS Ⅱ patients. The differences of mfVEP were analyzed between the two GMFCS groups. ResultsThe amplitude and latency of mfVEP in children with CP showed gradual changes similar to those in the normal children. The amplitudes were decreasing and the latencies were delaying from the first eccentricity to the sixth eccentricity. The amplitudes in children with CP were lower than those in the control group in the first to the third eccentricities for both eyes (P＜0.05), and latency of left eye was delayed in the first eccentricity in children with CP (P=0.045). No difference was found between the two GMFCS groups (P>0.05) except the amplitude of the first eccentricity (P=0.043). ConclusionsThe results of mfVEP show significant differences of amplitude and latency between CP and normal children, suggesting the existence of visual pathway impairments in cerebral palsy children. The results of mfVEP can provide an objective basis of visual impairments for cerebral palsy children.
The capacity of embryonic spinal cord tissue in the repair of injured structure of spinal cord has been noted for years. In order to investigate the embryonic spinal cord graft in the repair of motor function of injured spinal cord, the embryonic spinal cord tissue was transplanted to the hemisection cavity in spinal cord in adult rat. One hundred adult Wistar Rats were used to simulate the hemisectional injury of spinal cord by drilling 2-3 mm cavity in lumbar enlargement. Sixty rats were treated with rat embryonic spinal cord tissue grafting while the other forty were chosen as control. The outcome was evaluated according the combined behavioural score (CBS) and motor evoked potential (MEP) in the 1, 2, 4 and 12 weeks. The grafting group was superior to the control as assessed by CBS (P lt; 0.05), especially within 4 weeks. (P lt; 0.01). The restoration of the latent peak of early wave(P1, N1) was better in the grafting group, too. This suggested that embryonic spinal cord graft could improve the recovery of motor function of injured spinal cord in adult rat. The effect of the embryonic spinal cord tissue graft might be concerned with its secretion of several kinds of neurotrophic factors, nerve growth factor, nerve transmitted factor, or adjustment of hormone.
Brain-controlled wheelchair (BCW) is one of the important applications of brain-computer interface (BCI) technology. The present research shows that simulation control training is of great significance for the application of BCW. In order to improve the BCW control ability of users and promote the application of BCW under the condition of safety, this paper builds an indoor simulation training system based on the steady-state visual evoked potentials for BCW. The system includes visual stimulus paradigm design and implementation, electroencephalogram acquisition and processing, indoor simulation environment modeling, path planning, and simulation wheelchair control, etc. To test the performance of the system, a training experiment involving three kinds of indoor path-control tasks is designed and 10 subjects were recruited for the 5-day training experiment. By comparing the results before and after the training experiment, it was found that the average number of commands in Task 1, Task 2, and Task 3 decreased by 29.5%, 21.4%, and 25.4%, respectively (P < 0.001). And the average number of commands used by the subjects to complete all tasks decreased by 25.4% (P < 0.001). The experimental results show that the training of subjects through the indoor simulation training system built in this paper can improve their proficiency and efficiency of BCW control to a certain extent, which verifies the practicability of the system and provides an effective assistant method to promote the indoor application of BCW.
ObjectiveTo study whether the pattern visual evoked potential (P-VEP) under different spatial frequency in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) is different from normal people. MethodsP-VEP examination under high (15') and low (60') spatial frequency was performed on 18 MS patients (36 eyes) treated in our department from September 2011 to April 2012 and 20 normal volunteers (40 eyes). Then, we analyzed the difference between the two groups under the above-mentioned two kinds of spatial frequency. ResultsThe latency of P100 of P-VEP under high spatial frequency in MS patients was (120.50±13.04) ms which was significantly different from (109.21±5.38) ms of normal volunteers (P < 0.05). The latency of P100 of P-VEP under low spatial frequency in MS patients was (109.57±12.87) ms, which was also significantly different from (103.31±5.45) ms of normal volunteers (P < 0.05). The amplitude of P100 of P-VEP under high spatial frequency in MS patients was (9.17±5.69)μV and it was significantly lower than that[(15.69±8.45)μv] of normal volunteers (P < 0.05). The amplitude of P100 of P-VEP under low spatial frequency in MS patients was (11.93±16.75)μV and it was not significantly different from normal volunteers[(13.47±9.24μV)]. Based on different corrected vision, the MS patients were divided into two groups (vision≥1.0 and vision < 1.0). For patients with vision≥1.0, the latency of P100 and the amplitude of P100 of P-VEP under high spatial frequency was (113.43±8.28) ms and (12.94±5.46)μV; the latency of P100 and the amplitude of P100 of P-VEP under low spatial frequency was (111.13±11.50) ms and (11.57±5.60)μV. For patients with vision < 1.0, the latency of P100 and the amplitude of P100 of P-VEP under high spatial frequency was (126.69±13.49) ms and (5.87±3.43)μV; the latency of P100 and the amplitude of P100 of P-VEP under low spatial frequency was (108.26±14.11) ms and (12.24±5.82)μV. There was no significant difference in the latency and amplitude of P100 under low spatial frequency between the two groups with different corrected vision (P > 0.05), but the latency and amplitude of P100 under high spatial frequency were both significantly different between those two groups (P < 0.05). ConclusionsCompared with normal people, MS patients feature latency delay and amplitude reduction of the P-VEP, which was more severe under high spatial frequency. P-VEP under high spatial frequency may become an important evidence to evaluate visual function of MS patients.
Steady-state flsash visual evoked potentials (SFVEPs) of 30 Hz were recorded for 46 normal subjects (89 eyes )and 35 patients (51 eyes )with optic neuropathy. The visual acuities of 58.8%affected eyes were less than 0.1. The recorded waveforms were analyzed by discrete Foruier transform (DTF). The amplitudes and phases of fundamental response component and second harmonic were abstracted as characteristic values of the waveform.The total abnormal ratio was 80. 4%. The abnormal types showed the reduced amplitudes,reduced amplitude with phase change, the phases changes, and flat wave. The advantages of SFVEPs in clinical application were discussed. （Chin J Ocul Fundus Dis,1994,10:213-215）
Steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) is one of the commonly used control signals in brain-computer interface (BCI) systems. The SSVEP-based BCI has the advantages of high information transmission rate and short training time, which has become an important branch of BCI research field. In this review paper, the main progress on frequency recognition algorithm for SSVEP in past five years are summarized from three aspects, i.e., unsupervised learning algorithms, supervised learning algorithms and deep learning algorithms. Finally, some frontier topics and potential directions are explored.