Evolution of clinical neurophysiology since Hans Berger, the past 40 years of EEG

The diagnostic value of sleep-deprived EEG in epilepsy: A meta-analysis

Sleep deprivation has been studied as a method to induce sleep before EEG testing to improve the diagnosis of epilepsy. However, the effectiveness of sleep deprivation in diagnosing epilepsy through EEG in humans showed conflicting findings in previous studies. This meta-analysis aimed to provide statistical evidence for the diagnostic value of sleep-deprived EEG in epilepsy. A systematic search of the Web of Science and PubMed databases identified 12 relevant studies from May 1997 to the present. These studies were included to examine the diagnostic value of sleep-deprived EEG in epilepsy and its associated clinical variables, such as patient age, duration of sleep deprivation, and EEG recording duration. The results of the random effects model did not show a significant overall diagnostic effect for sleep-deprived EEG in epilepsy, but revealed high heterogeneity among the studies. Notably, this heterogeneity was not accounted for by the clinical variables analyzed. Upon excluding outliers, a trend suggesting a modest diagnostic value of sleep-deprived EEG emerged. The high heterogeneity among studies indicates the need for a standardized protocol for sleep deprivation in future studies. Overall, while sleep deprivation may have a small positive effect on EEG-based epilepsy diagnosis, further research is needed to better understand its impact and optimize its use in clinical practice.

The current state of the brain-computer interface problem

It was only 40 years ago that the first PC appeared. Over this period, rather short in historical terms, we have witnessed the revolutionary changes in lives of individuals and the entire society. Computer technologies are tightly connected with any field, either directly or indirectly. We can currently claim that computers are manifold superior to a human mind in terms of a number of parameters; however, machines lack the key feature: they are incapable of independent thinking (like a human). However, the key to successful development of humankind is collaboration between the brain and the computer rather than competition. Such collaboration when a computer broadens, supplements, or replaces some brain functions is known as the brain-computer interface. Our review focuses on real-life implementation of this collaboration.

Chapter 13: the contributions of neurophysiology to clinical neurology an exercise in contemporary history

This chapter reviews a number of historical contributions of neurophysiology to clinical neurology in the hundred years that have elapsed since the publication of Sherrington's The Integrative Action of the Nervous System, a book generally considered the neurophysiologist's bible. In the past, many normal nervous functions have been inferred from disorderly functions in animals by neurophysiologists and in humans by clinical neurologists. If neurophysiologists have undoubtedly learned much from experimental lesions in animals, it has been the clinical neurologists who have obtained first-hand information on the effects of pathology on the functioning of the most complex and interesting of all nervous systems, that of man. Currently this division of labor is less clear, and convergent evidence from neurophysiology and clinical neurology alike has set our current knowledge about brain functions on a firm comparative foundation. This review of the relations between neurophysiology and clinical neurology reports contributions that have been recognized as "historical" by the scientific community because of their documented impact on the development of the entire field of neurosciences. The inclusion of further less famous neurophysiological achievements is justified by their potential influence on the advancement of neuroscience, as seen from the author's personal viewpoint.