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Frassineti L, Catrambone V, Lanatà A, Valenza G. Impaired brain-heart axis in focal epilepsy: Alterations in information flow and implications for seizure dynamics. Netw Neurosci 2024; 8:541-556. [PMID: 38952812 PMCID: PMC11168720 DOI: 10.1162/netn_a_00367] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2023] [Accepted: 02/09/2024] [Indexed: 07/03/2024] Open
Abstract
This study delves into functional brain-heart interplay (BHI) dynamics during interictal periods before and after seizure events in focal epilepsy. Our analysis focuses on elucidating the causal interaction between cortical and autonomic nervous system (ANS) oscillations, employing electroencephalography and heart rate variability series. The dataset for this investigation comprises 47 seizure events from 14 independent subjects, obtained from the publicly available Siena Dataset. Our findings reveal an impaired brain-heart axis especially in the heart-to-brain functional direction. This is particularly evident in bottom-up oscillations originating from sympathovagal activity during the transition between preictal and postictal periods. These results indicate a pivotal role of the ANS in epilepsy dynamics. Notably, the brain-to-heart information flow targeting cardiac oscillations in the low-frequency band does not display significant changes. However, there are noteworthy changes in cortical oscillations, primarily originating in central regions, influencing heartbeat oscillations in the high-frequency band. Our study conceptualizes seizures as a state of hyperexcitability and a network disease affecting both cortical and peripheral neural dynamics. Our results pave the way for a deeper understanding of BHI in epilepsy, which holds promise for the development of advanced diagnostic and therapeutic approaches also based on bodily neural activity for individuals living with epilepsy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lorenzo Frassineti
- Department of Information Engineering, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Firenze, Italy
| | - Vincenzo Catrambone
- Department of Information Engineering and Bioengineering & Robotics Research Center E. Piaggio, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Antonio Lanatà
- Department of Information Engineering, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Firenze, Italy
| | - Gaetano Valenza
- Department of Information Engineering and Bioengineering & Robotics Research Center E. Piaggio, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
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Eriksson A, Kimmel MC, Furmark T, Wikman A, Grueschow M, Skalkidou A, Frick A, Fransson E. Investigating heart rate variability measures during pregnancy as predictors of postpartum depression and anxiety: an exploratory study. Transl Psychiatry 2024; 14:203. [PMID: 38744808 PMCID: PMC11094065 DOI: 10.1038/s41398-024-02909-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2023] [Revised: 03/29/2024] [Accepted: 04/12/2024] [Indexed: 05/16/2024] Open
Abstract
Perinatal affective disorders are common, but standard screening measures reliant on subjective self-reports might not be sufficient to identify pregnant women at-risk for developing postpartum depression and anxiety. Lower heart rate variability (HRV) has been shown to be associated with affective disorders. The current exploratory study aimed to evaluate the predictive utility of late pregnancy HRV measurements of postpartum affective symptoms. A subset of participants from the BASIC study (Uppsala, Sweden) took part in a sub-study at pregnancy week 38 where HRV was measured before and after a mild stressor (n = 122). Outcome measures were 6-week postpartum depression and anxiety symptoms as quantified by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). In total, 112 women were included in a depression outcome analysis and 106 women were included in an anxiety outcome analysis. Group comparisons indicated that lower pregnancy HRV was associated with depressive or anxious symptomatology at 6 weeks postpartum. Elastic net logistic regression analyses indicated that HRV indices alone were not predictive of postpartum depression or anxiety outcomes, but HRV indices were selected as predictors in a combined model with background and pregnancy variables. ROC curves for the combined models gave an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.93 for the depression outcome and an AUC of 0.83 for the anxiety outcome. HRV indices predictive of postpartum depression generally differed from those predictive of postpartum anxiety. HRV indices did not significantly improve prediction models comprised of psychological measures only in women with pregnancy depression or anxiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Allison Eriksson
- Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
- Women's Mental Health during the Reproductive Lifespan - WOMHER, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
| | - Mary Claire Kimmel
- Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Tomas Furmark
- Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Anna Wikman
- Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Marcus Grueschow
- Zurich Center for Neuroeconomics (ZNE), Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Alkistis Skalkidou
- Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Andreas Frick
- Department of Medical Sciences, Psychiatry, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Emma Fransson
- Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
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Catrambone V, Zallocco L, Ramoretti E, Mazzoni MR, Sebastiani L, Valenza G. Integrative neuro-cardiovascular dynamics in response to test anxiety: A brain-heart axis study. Physiol Behav 2024; 276:114460. [PMID: 38215864 DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2024.114460] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2023] [Revised: 12/08/2023] [Accepted: 01/08/2024] [Indexed: 01/14/2024]
Abstract
Test anxiety (TA), a recognized form of social anxiety, is the most prominent cause of anxiety among students and, if left unmanaged, can escalate to psychiatric disorders. TA profoundly impacts both central and autonomic nervous systems, presenting as a dual manifestation of cognitive and autonomic components. While limited studies have explored the physiological underpinnings of TA, none have directly investigated the intricate interplay between the CNS and ANS in this context. In this study, we introduce a non-invasive, integrated neuro-cardiovascular approach to comprehensively characterize the physiological responses of 27 healthy subjects subjected to test anxiety induced via a simulated exam scenario. Our experimental findings highlight that an isolated analysis of electroencephalographic and heart rate variability data fails to capture the intricate information provided by a brain-heart axis assessment, which incorporates an analysis of the dynamic interaction between the brain and heart. With respect to resting state, the simulated examination induced a decrease in the neural control onto heartbeat dynamics at all frequencies, while the studying condition induced a decrease in the ascending heart-to-brain interplay at EEG oscillations up to 12Hz. This underscores the significance of adopting a multisystem perspective in understanding the complex and especially functional directional mechanisms underlying test anxiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vincenzo Catrambone
- Neurocardiovascular Intelligence Laboratory, Department of Information Engineering & Bioengineering and Robotics Research Center E. Piaggio, School of Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
| | - Lorenzo Zallocco
- Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Eleonora Ramoretti
- Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Maria Rosa Mazzoni
- Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Laura Sebastiani
- Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy; Institute of Information Science and Technologies A. Faedo, ISTI-CNR, Pisa, Italy
| | - Gaetano Valenza
- Neurocardiovascular Intelligence Laboratory, Department of Information Engineering & Bioengineering and Robotics Research Center E. Piaggio, School of Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
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Wu Q, Miao X, Cao Y, Chi A, Xiao T. Heart rate variability status at rest in adult depressed patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Front Public Health 2023; 11:1243213. [PMID: 38169979 PMCID: PMC10760642 DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1243213] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2023] [Accepted: 11/30/2023] [Indexed: 01/05/2024] Open
Abstract
Purposes A meta-analysis was conducted to examine the differences in heart rate variability (HRV) between depressed patients and healthy individuals, with the purpose of providing a theoretical basis for the diagnosis of depression and the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Methods To search China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), WanFang, VIP, PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct, and Cochrane Library databases to collect case-control studies on HRV in depressed patients, the retrieval date is from the establishment of the database to December 2022. Effective Public Health Practice Project (EPHPP) scale was used to evaluate literature quality, and Stata14.0 software was used for meta-analysis. Results This study comprised of 43 papers, 22 written in Chinese and 21 in English, that included 2,359 subjects in the depression group and 3,547 in the healthy control group. Meta-analysis results showed that compared with the healthy control group, patients with depression had lower SDNN [Hedges' g = -0.87, 95% CI (-1.14, -0.60), Z = -6.254, p < 0.01], RMSSD [Hedges' g = -0.51, 95% CI (-0.69,-0.33), Z = -5.525, p < 0.01], PNN50 [Hedges' g = -0.43, 95% CI (-0.59, -0.27), Z = -5.245, p < 0.01], LF [Hedges' g = -0.34, 95% CI (-0.55, - 0.13), Z = -3.104, p < 0.01], and HF [Hedges' g = -0.51, 95% CI (-0.69, -0.33), Z = -5.669 p < 0.01], and LF/HF [Hedges' g = -0.05, 95% CI (-0.27, 0.18), Z = -0.410, p = 0.682] showed no significant difference. Conclusion This research revealed that HRV measures of depressed individuals were lower than those of the healthy population, except for LF/HF, suggesting that people with depression may be more at risk of cardiovascular diseases than the healthy population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qianqian Wu
- School of Physical Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, China
| | | | - Yingying Cao
- School of Physical Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, China
| | - Aiping Chi
- School of Physical Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, China
| | - Tao Xiao
- School of Physical Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, China
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Catrambone V, Valenza G. Microstates of the cortical brain-heart axis. Hum Brain Mapp 2023; 44:5846-5857. [PMID: 37688575 PMCID: PMC10619395 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26480] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2022] [Revised: 08/04/2023] [Accepted: 08/24/2023] [Indexed: 09/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Electroencephalographic (EEG) microstates are brain states with quasi-stable scalp topography. Whether such states extend to the body level, that is, the peripheral autonomic nerves, remains unknown. We hypothesized that microstates extend at the brain-heart axis level as a functional state of the central autonomic network. Thus, we combined the EEG and heartbeat dynamics series to estimate the directional information transfer originating in the cortex targeting the sympathovagal and parasympathetic activity oscillations and vice versa for the afferent functional direction. Data were from two groups of participants: 36 healthy volunteers who were subjected to cognitive workload induced by mental arithmetic, and 26 participants who underwent physical stress induced by a cold pressure test. All participants were healthy at the time of the study. Based on statistical testing and goodness-of-fit evaluations, we demonstrated the existence of microstates of the functional brain-heart axis, with emphasis on the cerebral cortex, since the microstates are derived from EEG. Such nervous-system microstates are spatio-temporal quasi-stable states that exclusively refer to the efferent brain-to-heart direction. We demonstrated brain-heart microstates that could be associated with specific experimental conditions as well as brain-heart microstates that are non-specific to tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vincenzo Catrambone
- Neurocardiovascular Intelligence Laboratory, Bioengineering and Robotics Research Center E. Piaggio, & Department of Information Engineering, School of EngineeringUniversity of PisaPisaItaly
| | - Gaetano Valenza
- Neurocardiovascular Intelligence Laboratory, Bioengineering and Robotics Research Center E. Piaggio, & Department of Information Engineering, School of EngineeringUniversity of PisaPisaItaly
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Catrambone V, Valenza G. A Unified Framework for Investigating Aperiodic and Periodic Components in the Hearbeat Dynamics Spectrum: a Feasibility Study. ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY. IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY. ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2023; 2023:1-4. [PMID: 38083473 DOI: 10.1109/embc40787.2023.10340558] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2023]
Abstract
Heart Rate Variability (HRV) series is a widely used, non-invasive, and easy-to-acquire time-resolved signal for evaluating autonomic control on cardiovascular activity. Despite the recognition that heartbeat dynamics contains both periodic and aperiodic components, the majority of HRV modeling studies concentrate on only one component. On the one hand, there are models based on self-similarity and 1/f behavior that focus on the aperiodic component; on the other hand, there is the conventional division of the spectral domain into narrow-band oscillations, which considers HRV as a combination of periodic components. Taking inspiration from a recent parametrization of EEG power spectra, here we evaluate the applicability of a unified modeling framework to quantitatively assess heartbeat dynamics spectra as a mixture of aperiodic and periodic components. The proposed model is applied on publicly-available, real HRV series collected during postural changes from 10 healthy subjects. Results show that the proposed modeling effectively characterizes different experimental conditions and may complement HRV standard analysis defined in the frequency domain.
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Catrambone V, Valenza G. Complex Brain-Heart Mapping in Mental and Physical Stress. IEEE JOURNAL OF TRANSLATIONAL ENGINEERING IN HEALTH AND MEDICINE 2023; 11:495-504. [PMID: 37817820 PMCID: PMC10561752 DOI: 10.1109/jtehm.2023.3280974] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2022] [Revised: 04/29/2023] [Accepted: 05/25/2023] [Indexed: 10/12/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The central and autonomic nervous systems are deemed complex dynamic systems, wherein each system as a whole shows features that the individual system sub-components do not. They also continuously interact to maintain body homeostasis and appropriate react to endogenous and exogenous stimuli. Such interactions are comprehensively referred to functional brain-heart interplay (BHI). Nevertheless, it remains uncertain whether this interaction also exhibits complex characteristics, that is, whether the dynamics of the entire nervous system inherently demonstrate complex behavior, or if such complexity is solely a trait of the central and autonomic systems. Here, we performed complexity mapping of the BHI dynamics under mental and physical stress conditions. METHODS AND PROCEDURES Electroencephalographic and heart rate variability series were obtained from 56 healthy individuals performing mental arithmetic or cold-pressure tasks, and physiological series were properly combined to derive directional BHI series, whose complexity was quantified through fuzzy entropy. RESULTS The experimental results showed that BHI complexity is mainly modulated in the efferent functional direction from the brain to the heart, and mainly targets vagal oscillations during mental stress and sympathovagal oscillations during physical stress. CONCLUSION We conclude that the complexity of BHI mapping may provide insightful information on the dynamics of both central and autonomic activity, as well as on their continuous interaction. CLINICAL IMPACT This research enhances our comprehension of the reciprocal interactions between central and autonomic systems, potentially paving the way for more accurate diagnoses and targeted treatments of cardiovascular, neurological, and psychiatric disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vincenzo Catrambone
- Neurocardiovascular Intelligence Laboratory, Bioengineering and Robotics Research Center E. Piaggio, and Department of Information EngineeringSchool of EngineeringUniversity of Pisa56126PisaItaly
| | - Gaetano Valenza
- Neurocardiovascular Intelligence Laboratory, Bioengineering and Robotics Research Center E. Piaggio, and Department of Information EngineeringSchool of EngineeringUniversity of Pisa56126PisaItaly
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Valenza G. Depression as a cardiovascular disorder: central-autonomic network, brain-heart axis, and vagal perspectives of low mood. FRONTIERS IN NETWORK PHYSIOLOGY 2023; 3:1125495. [PMID: 37260560 PMCID: PMC10228690 DOI: 10.3389/fnetp.2023.1125495] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2022] [Accepted: 05/04/2023] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
If depressive symptoms are not caused by the physiological effects of a substance or other medical or neurological conditions, they are generally classified as mental disorders that target the central nervous system. However, recent evidence suggests that peripheral neural dynamics on cardiovascular control play a causal role in regulating and processing emotions. In this perspective, we explore the dynamics of the Central-Autonomic Network (CAN) and related brain-heart interplay (BHI), highlighting their psychophysiological correlates and clinical symptoms of depression. Thus, we suggest that depression may arise from dysregulated cardiac vagal and sympathovagal dynamics that lead to CAN and BHI dysfunctions. Therefore, treatments for depression should target the nervous system as a whole, with particular emphasis on regulating vagal and BHI dynamics.
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Candia-Rivera D, Norouzi K, Ramsøy TZ, Valenza G. Dynamic fluctuations in ascending heart-to-brain communication under mental stress. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 2023; 324:R513-R525. [PMID: 36802949 PMCID: PMC10026986 DOI: 10.1152/ajpregu.00251.2022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/22/2023]
Abstract
Dynamical information exchange between central and autonomic nervous systems, as referred to functional brain-heart interplay, occurs during emotional and physical arousal. It is well documented that physical and mental stress lead to sympathetic activation. Nevertheless, the role of autonomic inputs in nervous system-wise communication under mental stress is yet unknown. In this study, we estimated the causal and bidirectional neural modulations between electroencephalogram (EEG) oscillations and peripheral sympathetic and parasympathetic activities using a recently proposed computational framework for a functional brain-heart interplay assessment, namely the sympathovagal synthetic data generation model. Mental stress was elicited in 37 healthy volunteers by increasing their cognitive demands throughout three tasks associated with increased stress levels. Stress elicitation induced an increased variability in sympathovagal markers, as well as increased variability in the directional brain-heart interplay. The observed heart-to-brain interplay was primarily from sympathetic activity targeting a wide range of EEG oscillations, whereas variability in the efferent direction seemed mainly related to EEG oscillations in the γ band. These findings extend current knowledge on stress physiology, which mainly referred to top-down neural dynamics. Our results suggest that mental stress may not cause an increase in sympathetic activity exclusively as it initiates a dynamic fluctuation within brain-body networks including bidirectional interactions at a brain-heart level. We conclude that directional brain-heart interplay measurements may provide suitable biomarkers for a quantitative stress assessment and bodily feedback may modulate the perceived stress caused by increased cognitive demand.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diego Candia-Rivera
- Department of Information Engineering & Bioengineering and Robotics Research Center E. Piaggio, School of Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Kian Norouzi
- Department of Applied Neuroscience, Neurons, Inc., Taastrup, Denmark
- Faculty of Management, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Thomas Zoëga Ramsøy
- Department of Applied Neuroscience, Neurons, Inc., Taastrup, Denmark
- Faculty of Neuroscience, Singularity University, Santa Clara, California, United States
| | - Gaetano Valenza
- Department of Information Engineering & Bioengineering and Robotics Research Center E. Piaggio, School of Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
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Candia-Rivera D. Modeling brain-heart interactions from Poincaré plot-derived measures of sympathetic-vagal activity. MethodsX 2023; 10:102116. [PMID: 36970022 PMCID: PMC10034502 DOI: 10.1016/j.mex.2023.102116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2022] [Accepted: 03/06/2023] [Indexed: 03/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent studies suggest that the interaction between the brain and heart plays a key role in cognitive processes, and measuring these interactions is crucial for understanding the interaction between the central and autonomic nervous systems. However, studying this bidirectional interplay presents methodological challenges, and there is still much room for exploration. This paper presents a new computational method called the Poincaré Sympathetic-Vagal Synthetic Data Generation Model (PSV-SDG) for estimating brain-heart interactions. The PSV-SDG combines EEG and cardiac sympathetic-vagal dynamics to provide time-varying and bidirectional estimators of mutual interplay. The method is grounded in the Poincaré plot, a heart rate variability method to estimate sympathetic-vagal activity that can account for potential non-linearities. This algorithm offers a new approach and computational tool for functional assessment of the interplay between EEG and cardiac sympathetic-vagal activity. The method is implemented in MATLAB under an open-source license. • A new brain-heart interaction modeling approach is proposed. • The modeling is based on coupled synthetic data generators of EEG and heart rate series. • Sympathetic and vagal activities are gathered from Poincaré plot geometry.
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Yang L, Jin C, Qi S, Teng Y, Li C, Yao Y, Ruan X, Wei X. Aberrant degree centrality of functional brain networks in subclinical depression and major depressive disorder. Front Psychiatry 2023; 14:1084443. [PMID: 36873202 PMCID: PMC9978101 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1084443] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2022] [Accepted: 02/01/2023] [Indexed: 02/18/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND As one of the most common diseases, major depressive disorder (MDD) has a significant adverse impact on the li of patients. As a mild form of depression, subclinical depression (SD) serves as an indicator of progression to MDD. This study analyzed the degree centrality (DC) for MDD, SD, and healthy control (HC) groups and identified the brain regions with DC alterations. METHODS The experimental data were composed of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) from 40 HCs, 40 MDD subjects, and 34 SD subjects. After conducting a one-way analysis of variance, two-sample t-tests were used for further analysis to explore the brain regions with changed DC. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis of single index and composite index features was performed to analyze the distinguishable ability of important brain regions. RESULTS For the comparison of MDD vs. HC, increased DC was found in the right superior temporal gyrus (STG) and right inferior parietal lobule (IPL) in the MDD group. For SD vs. HC, the SD group showed a higher DC in the right STG and the right middle temporal gyrus (MTG), and a smaller DC in the left IPL. For MDD vs. SD, increased DC in the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG), right IPL, and left IPL, and decreased DC in the right STG and right MTG was found in the MDD group. With an area under the ROC (AUC) of 0.779, the right STG could differentiate MDD patients from HCs and, with an AUC of 0.704, the right MTG could differentiate MDD patients from SD patients. The three composite indexes had good discriminative ability in each pairwise comparison, with AUCs of 0.803, 0.751, and 0.814 for MDD vs. HC, SD vs. HC, and MDD vs. SD, respectively. CONCLUSION Altered DC in the STG, MTG, IPL, and MFG were identified in depression groups. The DC values of these altered regions and their combinations presented good discriminative ability between HC, SD, and MDD. These findings could help to find effective biomarkers and reveal the potential mechanisms of depression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lei Yang
- College of Medicine and Biological Information Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, China
| | - Chaoyang Jin
- College of Medicine and Biological Information Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, China
| | - Shouliang Qi
- College of Medicine and Biological Information Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, China.,Key Laboratory of Intelligent Computing in Medical Image, Ministry of Education, Northeastern University, Shenyang, China
| | - Yueyang Teng
- College of Medicine and Biological Information Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, China
| | - Chen Li
- College of Medicine and Biological Information Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, China
| | - Yudong Yao
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, United States
| | - Xiuhang Ruan
- Department of Radiology, Guangzhou First People's Hospital, School of Medicine, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
| | - Xinhua Wei
- Department of Radiology, Guangzhou First People's Hospital, School of Medicine, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
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Common and unique neural activities in subclinical depression and major depressive disorder indicate the development of brain impairments in different depressive stages. J Affect Disord 2022; 317:278-286. [PMID: 36057285 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.08.128] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2022] [Revised: 07/19/2022] [Accepted: 08/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Subclinical depression (SD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) can be considered as the early and late stages of depression, but the characteristics of intrinsic neural activity in different depressive stages are largely unknown. METHODS Twenty-six SD, 36 MDD subjects and 33 well-matched healthy controls (HCs) were recruited and underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). Voxel-wise regional homogeneity (ReHo) was analyzed to explore the alterations of intrinsic neural activity, and machine learning classification based on ReHo features was performed to assess potential performance for diagnostic classification. RESULTS Common alterations of ReHo in both SD and MDD groups were found in the bilateral middle temporal gyrus and the left middle occipital gyrus. Opposite alterations in SD and MDD groups were found in the right superior cerebellum. Moreover, increased ReHo in the bilateral precuneus was only found in MDD, while increased ReHo in the right middle frontal gyrus and precentral gyrus were unique to SD. The distinct ReHo values correctly identified SD, MDD, and HC by linear support vector machine (SVM) with an accuracy of 77.89 %, which further verified the discrimination ability of altered ReHo in these brain regions. LIMITATION The sample size is relatively small. CONCLUSION Common and unique ReHo alterations provided insights into the development of brain impairments in depression, and helped to understand the pathophysiology of SD and MDD.
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Catrambone V, Patron E, Gentili C, Valenza G. Complexity Modulation in functional Brain-Heart Interplay series driven by Emotional Stimuli: an early study using Fuzzy Entropy. ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY. IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY. ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2022; 2022:2306-2309. [PMID: 36085864 DOI: 10.1109/embc48229.2022.9871938] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Increasing attention has recently been devoted to the multidisciplinary investigation of functional brain-heart interplay (BHI), which has provided meaningful insights in neuroscience and clinical domains including cardiology, neurology, clinical psychology, and psychiatry. While neural (brain) and heartbeat series show high nonlinear and complex dynamics, a complexity analysis on BHI series has not been performed yet. To this end, in this preliminary study, we investigate BHI complexity modulation in 17 healthy subjects undergoing a 3-minute resting state and emotional elicitation through standardized image slideshow. Electroencephalographic and heart rate variability series were the inputs of an adhoc BHI model, which provides directional (from-heart-to-brain and from-brain-to-heart) estimates at different frequency bands. A Fuzzy entropy analysis was performed channel-wise on the model output for the two experimental conditions. Results suggest that BHI complexity increases in the emotional elicitation phase with respect to a resting state, especially in the functional direction from the heart to the brain. We conclude that BHI complexity may be a viable computational tool to characterize neurophysiological and pathological states under different experimental conditions.
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14
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Manzoni D, Catrambone V, Valenza G. Causal Symbolic Information Transfer for the Assessment of functional Brain-Heart Interplay through EEG Microstates Occurrences: a proof-of-concept study. ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY. IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY. ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2022; 2022:255-258. [PMID: 36086149 DOI: 10.1109/embc48229.2022.9871000] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Electroencephalography (EEG) microstates analysis provides a sequence of topographies representing the scalp-related electric field over time, and each microstate is synthetically represented by a symbol. Despite recent advances on functional brain-heart interplay (BHI) assessment, to our knowledge no methodology takes EEG microstates into account to relate the causal heartbeat dynamics. Moreover, standard BHI methods are tailored to a single EEG-channel analysis, neglecting the comprehensive information associated with a multichannel cluster or a whole-brain activity. To overcome these limitations, we devised a novel methodological frame-work for the assessment of functional BHI that exploits the symbolic representation of both EEG microstates and heart rate variability (HRV) series. Directional BHI quantification is then performed through Kullback-Leibler Divergence (KLD) and Transfer Entropy. The proposed methodology is here preliminarily tested on a dataset gathered from healthy subjects undergoing a resting state and a mental arithmetic task. Except for the KLD in the from-brain-to-heart direction, all other estimates showed significant differences between the two experimental conditions. We conclude that the proposed frame-work may promisingly provide novel insights on brain-heart phenomena through a whole-brain symbolic representation.
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Candia-Rivera D, Catrambone V, Barbieri R, Valenza G. Functional assessment of bidirectional cortical and peripheral neural control on heartbeat dynamics: a brain-heart study on thermal stress. Neuroimage 2022; 251:119023. [PMID: 35217203 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2021] [Revised: 02/16/2022] [Accepted: 02/18/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The study of functional brain-heart interplay (BHI) from non-invasive recordings has gained much interest in recent years. Previous endeavors aimed at understanding how the two dynamical systems exchange information, providing novel holistic biomarkers and important insights on essential cognitive aspects and neural system functioning. However, the interplay between cardiac sympathovagal and cortical oscillations still has much room for further investigation. In this study, we introduce a new computational framework for a functional BHI assessment, namely the Sympatho-Vagal Synthetic Data Generation Model, combining cortical (electroencephalography, EEG) and peripheral (cardiac sympathovagal) neural dynamics. The causal, bidirectional neural control on heartbeat dynamics was quantified on data gathered from 26 human volunteers undergoing a cold-pressor test. Results show that thermal stress induces heart-to-brain functional interplay sustained by EEG oscillations in the delta and gamma bands, primarily originating from sympathetic activity, whereas brain-to-heart interplay originates over central brain regions through sympathovagal control. The proposed methodology provides a viable computational tool for the functional assessment of the causal interplay between cortical and cardiac neural control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diego Candia-Rivera
- Bioengineering and Robotics Research Center E. Piaggio & Department of Information Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Pisa, 56122, Pisa, Italy.
| | - Vincenzo Catrambone
- Bioengineering and Robotics Research Center E. Piaggio & Department of Information Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Pisa, 56122, Pisa, Italy
| | - Riccardo Barbieri
- Department of Electronics, Informatics, and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, 20133, Milano, Italy
| | - Gaetano Valenza
- Bioengineering and Robotics Research Center E. Piaggio & Department of Information Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Pisa, 56122, Pisa, Italy
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Zhang B, Liu S, Liu X, Chen S, Ke Y, Qi S, Wei X, Ming D. Discriminating subclinical depression from major depression using multi-scale brain functional features: A radiomics analysis. J Affect Disord 2022; 297:542-552. [PMID: 34744016 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2021.10.122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2021] [Revised: 10/13/2021] [Accepted: 10/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The diagnosis of subclinical depression (SD) currently relies exclusively on subjective clinical scores and structured interviews, which shares great similarities with major depression (MD) and increases the risk of misdiagnosis of SD and MD. This study aimed to develop a method of disease classification for SD and MD by resting-state functional features using radiomics strategy. METHODS Twenty-six SD, 36 MD subjects and 33 well-matched healthy controls (HC) were recruited and underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). A novel radiomics analysis was proposed to discriminate SD from MD. Multi-scale brain functional features were extracted to explore a comprehensive representation of functional characteristics. A two-level feature selection strategy and support vector machine (SVM) were employed for classification. RESULTS The overall classification accuracy among SD, MD and HC groups was 84.21%. Particularly, the model excellently distinguished SD from MD with 96.77% accuracy, 100% sensitivity, and 92.31% specificity. Moreover, features with high discriminative power to distinguish SD from MD showed a strong association with default mode network, frontoparietal network, affective network, and visual network regions. LIMITATION The sample size was relatively small, which may limit the application in clinical translation to some extent. CONCLUSION These findings demonstrated that a valid radiomics approach based on functional measures can discriminate SD from MD with a high classification performance, facilitating an objective and reliable diagnosis individually in clinical practice. Features with high discriminative power may provide insight into a profound understanding of the brain functional impairments and pathophysiology of SD and MD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bo Zhang
- Lab of Neural Engineering & Rehabilitation, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Precision Instruments and Optoelectronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
| | - Shuang Liu
- Tianjin International Joint Research Center for Neural Engineering, Academy of Medical Engineering and Translational Medicine, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China.
| | - Xiaoya Liu
- Tianjin International Joint Research Center for Neural Engineering, Academy of Medical Engineering and Translational Medicine, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
| | - Sitong Chen
- Lab of Neural Engineering & Rehabilitation, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Precision Instruments and Optoelectronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
| | - Yufeng Ke
- Tianjin International Joint Research Center for Neural Engineering, Academy of Medical Engineering and Translational Medicine, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
| | - Shouliang Qi
- College of Medicine and Biological Information Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, China
| | - Xinhua Wei
- Department of Radiology, Guangzhou First People's Hospital, School of Medicine, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
| | - Dong Ming
- Lab of Neural Engineering & Rehabilitation, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Precision Instruments and Optoelectronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China; Tianjin International Joint Research Center for Neural Engineering, Academy of Medical Engineering and Translational Medicine, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China.
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Catrambone V, Barbieri R, Wendt H, Abry P, Valenza G. Functional brain-heart interplay extends to the multifractal domain. PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. SERIES A, MATHEMATICAL, PHYSICAL, AND ENGINEERING SCIENCES 2021; 379:20200260. [PMID: 34689620 PMCID: PMC8543048 DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2020.0260] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/12/2021] [Indexed: 05/09/2023]
Abstract
The study of functional brain-heart interplay has provided meaningful insights in cardiology and neuroscience. Regarding biosignal processing, this interplay involves predominantly neural and heartbeat linear dynamics expressed via time and frequency domain-related features. However, the dynamics of central and autonomous nervous systems show nonlinear and multifractal behaviours, and the extent to which this behaviour influences brain-heart interactions is currently unknown. Here, we report a novel signal processing framework aimed at quantifying nonlinear functional brain-heart interplay in the non-Gaussian and multifractal domains that combines electroencephalography (EEG) and heart rate variability series. This framework relies on a maximal information coefficient analysis between nonlinear multiscale features derived from EEG spectra and from an inhomogeneous point-process model for heartbeat dynamics. Experimental results were gathered from 24 healthy volunteers during a resting state and a cold pressor test, revealing that synchronous changes between brain and heartbeat multifractal spectra occur at higher EEG frequency bands and through nonlinear/complex cardiovascular control. We conclude that significant bodily, sympathovagal changes such as those elicited by cold-pressure stimuli affect the functional brain-heart interplay beyond second-order statistics, thus extending it to multifractal dynamics. These results provide a platform to define novel nervous-system-targeted biomarkers. This article is part of the theme issue 'Advanced computation in cardiovascular physiology: new challenges and opportunities'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vincenzo Catrambone
- Research Center E.Piaggio, Department of Information Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Riccardo Barbieri
- Department of Electronics, Informatics and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
| | - Herwig Wendt
- IRIT–ENSEEIHT, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, Toulouse, France
| | - Patrice Abry
- University of Lyon, ENS de Lyon, University Claude Bernard, CNRS, Laboratoire de Physique, Lyon, France
| | - Gaetano Valenza
- Research Center E.Piaggio, Department of Information Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
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Ghiasi S, Dell'Acqua C, Benvenuti SM, Scilingo EP, Gentili C, Valenza G, Greco A. Classifying subclinical depression using EEG spectral and connectivity measures. ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY. IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY. ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2021; 2021:2050-2053. [PMID: 34891691 DOI: 10.1109/embc46164.2021.9630044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Detecting depression on its early stages helps preventing the onset of severe depressive episodes. In this study, we propose an automatic classification pipeline to detect subclinical depression (i.e., dysphoria) through the electroencephalography (EEG) signal. To this aim, we recorded the EEG signals in resting condition from 26 female participants with dysphoria and 38 female controls. The EEG signals were processed to extract several spectral and functional connectivity features to feed a nonlinear Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier embedded with a Recursive Feature Elimination (RFE) algorithm. Our recognition pipeline obtained a maximum classification accuracy of 83.91% in recognizing dysphoria patients with a combination of connectivity and spectral measures. Moreover, an accuracy of 76.11% was achieved with only the 4 most informative functional connections, suggesting a central role of cortical connectivity in the theta band for early depression recognition. The present study can facilitate the diagnosis of subclinical conditions of depression and may provide reliable indicators of depression for the clinical community.
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Nardelli M, Catrambone V, Grandi G, Banfi T, Bruno RM, Scilingo EP, Faraguna U, Valenza G. Activation of brain-heart axis during REM sleep: a trigger for dreaming. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 2021; 321:R951-R959. [PMID: 34704848 DOI: 10.1152/ajpregu.00306.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Dreams may be recalled after awakening from sleep following a defined electroencephalographic pattern that involves local decreases in low-frequency activity in the posterior cortical regions. While a dreaming experience implies bodily changes at many organ-, system-, and timescale-levels, the entity and causal role of such peripheral changes in a conscious dream experience are unknown. We performed a comprehensive, causal, multivariate analysis of physiological signals acquired during REM sleep at night, including high-density EEG and peripheral dynamics including electrocardiography and blood pressure. In this preliminary study, we investigated multiple recalls and non-recalls of dream experiences using data from nine healthy volunteers. The aim was not only to investigate the changes in central and autonomic dynamics associated with dream recalls and non-recalls, but also to characterize the central-peripheral dynamical and (causal) directional interactions, and the temporal relations of the related arousals upon awakening. We uncovered a brain-body network that drives a conscious dreaming experience that acts with specific interaction and time delays. Such a network is sustained by the blood pressure dynamics and the increasing functional information transfer from the neural heartbeat regulation to the brain. We conclude that bodily changes play a crucial and causative role in a conscious dream experience during REM sleep.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mimma Nardelli
- Bioengineering and Robotics Research Centre E. Piaggio and Department of Information Engineering, University of Pisa, Italy
| | - Vincenzo Catrambone
- Bioengineering and Robotics Research Centre E. Piaggio and Department of Information Engineering, University of Pisa, Italy
| | - Giulia Grandi
- Department of Translational Research and of New Surgical and Medical Technologies, University of Pisa, Italy
| | - Tommaso Banfi
- Department of Translational Research and of New Surgical and Medical Technologies, University of Pisa, Italy
| | - Rosa Maria Bruno
- INSERM U970 Team 7, Paris Cardiovascular Research Centre - PARCC, University Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France
| | - Enzo Pasquale Scilingo
- Bioengineering and Robotics Research Centre E. Piaggio and Department of Information Engineering, University of Pisa, Italy
| | - Ugo Faraguna
- Department of Translational Research and of New Surgical and Medical Technologies, University of Pisa, Italy.,Department of Developmental Neuroscience, IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, Pisa, Italy
| | - Gaetano Valenza
- Bioengineering and Robotics Research Centre E. Piaggio and Department of Information Engineering, University of Pisa, Italy
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Candia-Rivera D, Catrambone V, Valenza G. The role of electroencephalography electrical reference in the assessment of functional brain-heart interplay: From methodology to user guidelines. J Neurosci Methods 2021; 360:109269. [PMID: 34171310 DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2021.109269] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2020] [Revised: 06/16/2021] [Accepted: 06/18/2021] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The choice of EEG reference has been widely studied. However, the choice of the most appropriate re-referencing for EEG data is still debated. Moreover, the role of EEG reference in the estimation of functional Brain-Heart Interplay (BHI), together with different multivariate modelling strategies, has not been investigated yet. METHODS This study identifies the best methodology combining a proper EEG electrical reference and signal processing methods for an effective functional BHI assessment. The effects of the EEG reference among common average, mastoids average, Laplacian reference, Cz reference, and the reference electrode standardization technique (REST) were explored throughout different BHI methods including synthetic data generation (SDG) model, heartbeat-evoked potentials, heartbeat-evoked oscillations, and maximal information coefficient. RESULTS The SDG model exhibited high robustness between EEG references, whereas the maximal information coefficient method exhibited a high sensitivity. The common average and REST references for EEG showed a good consistency in the between-method comparisons. Laplacian, and Cz references significantly bias a BHI measurement. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHODS The use of EEG reference based on a common average outperforms on the use of other references for consistency in estimating directed functional BHI. We do not recommend the use of EEG references based on analytical derivations as the experimental conditions may not meet the requirements of their optimal estimation, particularly in clinical settings. CONCLUSION The use of a common average for EEG electrical reference is concluded to be the most appropriate choice for a quantitative, functional BHI assessment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diego Candia-Rivera
- Bioengineering and Robotics Research Center E. Piaggio and the Department of Information Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
| | - Vincenzo Catrambone
- Bioengineering and Robotics Research Center E. Piaggio and the Department of Information Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Gaetano Valenza
- Bioengineering and Robotics Research Center E. Piaggio and the Department of Information Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
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