A Study on Cross-Frequency Coupling Effects on Intra-cranial EEG (iEEG) Data of Epileptic Patients

Abstract

Human epilepsy is ascribed to neuronal disorder of the brain. Neuronal activity of drug-resistant epileptic patients awaiting resection surgeries is routinely studied using intracranial electroencephalogram (iEEG) recording techniques. Analysis methods applied to the measured iEEG data seek answers to the neuronal behaviour at different stages or ictal periods of a seizure. Cross-frequency coupling (CFC) that influences the phase and amplitude of the frequencies of neuronal signals is a basic brain activity striking a relationship between normal and disorder conditions. Shedding light on the CFC in measured iEEG data of epilepsy patients in vivo is important to understanding of and mediation to seizures. In this thesis, we examine a few CFC metrics, such as the generalized linear model (GLM), the modulation index (MI) and the phase-locking value (PLV). We compute the numerical values for these metrics to establish cross-frequency coupling “within” signals and also “between” brain regions of four different iEEG datasets of epileptic patients. Finally, we draw some preliminary conclusions on the results and suggest future directions.