Submitted by (lucia.rodrigues@ufrpe.br) on 2016-05-31T12:48:57Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Daniella Tavares Pessoa.pdf: 1486789 bytes, checksum: a6f7a6497263d8419ed731a88dac28b8 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-31T12:48:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Daniella Tavares Pessoa.pdf: 1486789 bytes, checksum: a6f7a6497263d8419ed731a88dac28b8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-28 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The increased consumption of hyperlipidic diet has been an increase in obesity rates and levels of serum cholesterol and triglycerides in a large part of the population, as well as, has been linked with the development of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease. On the other hand, several studies demonstrated the importance of lipids in brain structure and activity. Epilepsy is a pathology related to the brain activity disorder, with high rate of refractoriness to conventional therapeutics, in these cases hyperlipidic diet has been used such an alternative treatment. Therefore, the investigation of possible interference from hyperlipidemic diets in TLE can add new perspectives in understanding the behavior and treatment of this pathology. In the present study we used mathematical computational methods to analyze electrographic patterns of rats in status epilepticus induced by pilocarpine fed with hyperlipidic diet. These rats were analyzed through electrographic parameters using ECoG records and determining: energies of power spectrum in the frequency of delta, theta, alpha and beta waves; Lempel-Ziv complexity; and fractal dimension of phase space. Status epilepticus induced changes in the encephalographic pattern measured by distribution of main brain waves using power spectrum, Lempel-Ziv complexity and fractal dimension of phase space. Hyperlipidic diet in normal rats also changed the values of brain waves energy in power spectrum and Lempel-Ziv complexity; however, fractal dimension of phase space showed no significant differences due to hyperlipidic diet treatment. Despite the hyperlipidic diet reduced brain activity before pilocarpine administration, the nutritional status did not change the encephalographic pattern during status epilepticus. In conclusion, hyperlipidic diet induced slower brain waves and decreased the complexity of brain activity, opposite effects of status epilepticus. Therefore, the mathematical methods were effective to detect brain hyperactivity caused by status epilepticus and reduced brain activity induced by hyperlipidic diet. / O aumento do consumo de dietas hiperlipídicas vem elevando os índices de obesidade e os níveis de colesterol e triglicerídeos de grande parte da população, além de estar relacionado ao desenvolvimento de doenças neurodegenerativas, como a doença de Alzheimer. Por outro lado muitas pesquisas têm comprovado a importância dos lipídeos na estrutura e atividade do cérebro. A epilepsia é uma patologia relacionada à desordem da atividade cerebral, com alto índice de refratariedade a medicamentos convencionais, nesses casos, o consumo de dietas hiperlipídica vem sendo utilizado como uma terapia alternativa. A investigação de possíveis interferências de dietas hiperlipídicas na ELT pode acrescentar novas perspectivas na compreensão do comportamento e tratamento desta condição patológica. Nesse trabalho foram analisados ratos em status epilepticus induzido pela pilocarpina submetidos à dieta hiperlipídica. Esses ratos foram analisados através de parâmetros eletrográficos utilizando os registros de ECoG e determinando as energias do seu espectro de potência nas freqüências das ondas delta, teta, alfa e beta; a complexidade de Lempel-Ziv e a dimensão fractal do espaço de fase. O status epilepticus induziu alterações no padrão encefalográfico mensuradas pela distribuição de energia das principais ondas cerebrais utilizando o espectro de potência, a complexidade de Lempel-Ziv e a dimensão fractal do espaço de fase. A dieta hiperlipídica, em ratos normais, também alterou os valores da energia das ondas cerebrais no espectro de potência e na complexidade de Lempel-Ziv; entretanto, a dimensão fractal do espaço de fase não revelou diferenças significativas devido ao tratamento com a dieta hiperlipídica. Apesar da dieta hiperlipídica ter reduzido a atividade cerebral antes da administração da pilocarpina, a condição nutricional não influenciou o padrão encefalográfico durante o status epilepticus. Em conclusão, a dieta hiperlipídica causou uma desaceleração das ondas cerebrais e diminuição da complexidade da atividade cerebral, efeitos contrários aos do status epilepticus. Portanto, os métodos matemáticos utilizados foram eficientes na detecção da hiperatividade cerebral causada pelo status epilepticus e redução da atividade cerebral induzida pela dieta hiperlipídica.

Um dos modelos experimentais mais utilizados para estudar a epilepsia do lobo temporal (ELT) é o abrasamento (kindling) por estimulação elétrica diária da amígdala, o abrasamento elétrico convencional. Uma alternativa rápida e eficaz a esse modelo é o abrasamento elétrico rápido, também capaz de gerar crises límbicas, porém com 10 estímulos elétricos aplicados ao dia, por 2 dias. No 3º dia é aplicado um estímulo elétrico adicional, o 21º estímulo, quando podem ser testadas drogas antiepilépticas ou estudados mecanismos de plasticidade ou memória. Entre as principais áreas ativadas nas crises límbicas encontram-se o complexo amigdalóide, a formação hipocampal, o córtex piriforme e neocórtices adjacentes. O envolvimento de estruturas olfatórias na ELT é antigo e estudos indicam que a exposição a um estímulo olfatório é capaz de suprimir, inibir ou induzir a ocorrência de crises. Todas as evidências clínicas e experimentais dão suporte científico para a hipótese de que a estimulação olfatória com o 2,5-Dihydro-2,4,5-trimethylthiazoline (TMT), uma potente substância química, derivada das fezes de raposa e que biologicamente representa o cheiro de predador pode influenciar no processo de crises evocadas por estimulação elétrica da amígdala. O objetivo geral do presente estudo foi avaliar a influência da apresentação do estímulo olfatório com TMT nas crises epilépticas de ratos Wistar, submetidos ao abrasamento elétrico rápido da amígdala. Para tanto, os parâmetros químicos do TMT foram avaliados, bem como as respostas comportamentais de ratos Wistar machos naives submetidos ao estímulo olfatório com diferentes doses de TMT. Na sequência, um novo grupo de ratos Wistar machos naives foi submetido ao protocolo de abrasamento elétrico rápido da amígdala com a aquisição dos registros eletrencefalográficos (EEGráficos) do córtex piriforme, formação hipocampal além do complexo amigdalóide. Após abrasados os animais foram expostos ao TMT ou água destilada, previamente ao 21º estímulo elétrico. Posteriormente o tecido cerebral foi processado (perfundido, crioprotegido, congelado e cortado) e então foram feitas as técnicas histoquímicas de: Nissl e Fluoro-Jade C (FJC, marcador de neurodegeneração). As respostas comportamentais foram analisadas mediante o uso do Índice de Gravidade para Crises Límbicas e da neuroetologia. Adicionalmente foi avaliada a expressão EEGráfica do 1º, 20º e 21º estímulos e verificada a presença/ausência de neurodegeneração em regiões do sistema límbico. Os resultados da análise comportamental obtidos nesse estudo foram comparados com os obtidos no protocolo de estimulação olfatória com TMT nas crises audiogênicas agudas de ratos da cepa WAR. O TMT desencadeou reações de medo e modificou as sequências comportamentais, reduziu a atividade motora e os comportamentos de autolimpeza. Dados qualitativos da cromatografia gasosa e algoritmos matemáticos possibilitaram estabelecer as concentrações na câmara para as diferentes doses de TMT. Além disso, a cromatografia gasosa identificou que 30 minutos é o tempo necessário para saturação e dessaturação da câmara ao TMT, e indicou uma saturação homogênea do interior dessa câmara. O TMT puro no abrasamento elétrico rápido em ratos Wistar foi capaz de reduzir significativamente o Índice de Gravidade para Crises Límbicas comparado à água, corroborando os dados neuroetológicos que indicam o efeito supressor do TMT nas crises, tanto para o modelo de abrasamento elétrico rápido quanto para as crises audiogênicas agudas. Os resultados da duração da pós-descarga EEGráfica primária no 21º estímulo foram inconclusivos, sendo necessárias outras análises empregando diferentes métodos analíticos. Com a técnica de FJC não foi possível verificar morte celular por necrose em qualquer região cerebral avaliada. / One of the most widely used experimental models to study temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the kindling by electrical daily stimulation of the amygdala, the conventional kindling. A rapid and effective alternative to this model is rapid electrical kindling, also capable of generating limbic seizures, but with 10 electrical stimuli applied per day for 2 days. On the 3rd day an additional electrical stimulus is applied, the 21st stimulus, when antiepileptic drugs can be tested or mechanisms of plasticity and memory can be studied. Among the main areas activated in limbic seizures are the amygdaloid complex, the hippocampal formation, piriform cortex and adjacent neocortices. The involvement of the olfactory structures in TLE is old and studies indicate that exposure to an olfactory stimulus is capable to suppress or inhibit or induce the occurrence of seizures. All the clinical and experimental evidences provide scientific support for the hypothesis that the olfactory stimulation with 2,5-Dihydro-2,4,5-trimethylthiazoline (TMT), a powerful chemical substance derived from fox feces which biologically represents the \"predator smell can influence the seizures process evoked by electrical stimulation of the amygdala. The overall objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of olfactory stimulation with TMT in seizures of Wistar rats subjected to rapid electrical kindling of the amygdala. Therefore, the chemical parameters of TMT were evaluated, as well as behavioral responses of naive male Wistar rats exposed to the olfactory stimulus with different concentrations of TMT. Other group of rats was electrically stimulated in the amygdaloid complex, following the protocol of rapid electrical kindling and the electroencephalographic recordings (EEGraphic) obtained from the piriform cortex, hippocampal formation in addition to the amygdaloid complex. After scorched the animals were exposed to TMT or distilled water, prior to the 21st electrical stimulation. Subsequently the cerebral tissue was processed (perfused, cryoprotected, frozen and sliced) and then processed for Nissl and Fluoro-Jade C histochemistry (FJC, a marker of neurodegeneration). The behavioral responses were analyzed by using the Severity Index for Limbic Seizures and neuroethology. In addition to EEG, reviewed after the 1st, 20th and 21th stimuli we also examined the presence/absence of neurodegeneration in regions of the limbic system. The results obtained in this study were compared with those obtained in the protocol of olfactory stimulation with TMT on acute audiogenic seizures of rats from the WAR strain. The TMT triggered fear reactions and modified the behavioral sequences, reduced motor activity and grooming behavior. Qualitative data from gas chromatography and mathematical algorithms made possible to establish the concentrations in the camera for the different doses of TMT. In addition, the gas chromatography helped to identify that 30 minutes is the time required for saturation and desaturation of the camera to TMT and indicated a homogeneous saturation of the interior of such camera. The pure TMT in rapid electrical kindling in Wistar rats was able to significantly reduce the Severity Index for Limbic Seizures, compared to water, corroborating the data of the neuroethology method indicating the suppressive effect of TMT in seizures, in both, the model of rapid electrical kindling as well as the acute audiogenic seizures. However, the results of the duration of the EEGraphic primary after-discharge at the 21th stimulus were inconclusive, requiring further analysis using different analytical methods. With the technique of FJC it was not observed necrotic cell death in any studied brain region.

A Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) is a system to communicate with external world through the brain activity. The brain activity is measured by Electro-Encephalography (EEG) and then processed by a BCI system. EEG source reconstruction could be a way to improve the accuracy of EEG classification in EEGbased brain–computer interface (BCI). In this thesis BCI methods were applied on derived sources which by their EEG enhancement it became possible to obtain a more accurate EEG detection and brought a new application to BCI technology that are recognition of writing letters imagery from brain waves. The BCI system enables people to write and type letters by their brain activity (EEG). To this end, first part of the thesis is dedicated to EEG source reconstruction techniques to select the most optimal EEG channels for task classification purposes. Due to this reason the changes in EEG signal power from rest state to motor imagery task was used, to find the location of an active single equivalent dipole. Implementing an inverse problem solution on the power changes by Multiple Sparse Priors (MSP) method generated a scalp map where its fitting showed the localization of EEG electrodes. Having the optimized locations the secondary objective was to choose the most optimal EEG features and rhythm for an efficient classification. This became possible by feature ranking, 1- Nearest Neighbor leave-one-out. The feature vectors were computed by applying the combined methods of multitaper method, Pwelch. The features were classified by several methods of Normal densities based quadratic classifier (qdc), k-nearest neighbor classifier (knn), Mixture of Gaussians classification and Train neural network classifier using back-propagation. Results show that the selected features and classifiers are able to recognize the imagination of writing alphabet with the high accuracy. / BCI controls external devices and interacts with the environment by brain signals. Measured EEG signals over the motor cortex exhibit changes in power related to the movements or imaginations which are executed in motor tasks [1]. These changes declare increase or decrease of power in the alpha (8Hz-13Hz), and beta (13Hz-28Hz) frequency bands from resting state to motor imagery task that known as event related synchronization (in case of power increasing) and desynchronization (in case of power decreasing) [2]. The necessity to communicate with the external world for locked-in state (LIS) patients (a paralyzed patient who only communicates with eyes), made doctors and engineers motivated to develop a BCI technology for typing letters through brain commands. Many researches have been done around this area to ascertain the dream of typing for handicapped. In the brain some regions of the cerebral cortex (motor cortex) are involved in the planning, control, and execution of voluntary movements. Electroencephalography (EEG) signals are electrical potential generated by the nerve cells in the cerebral cortex. In order to execute motoric tasks, the EEG signals are appeared over the motor cortex [1]. The measured brain response to a stimulus is called eventrelated potential (ERP). P300-event related potential (ERP) is an evoked neuron response to an external auditory or visual stimulus that is detectable in scalp-recorded EEG (The P300 is evoked potential which occurs across the parieto-central on the skull 300 ms after applying the stimulus). Farwell and Donchin have proven in a P300-based BCI speller [3] that P300 response is a reliable signal for controlling a BCI system. They described the P300 speller, in which alphanumeric characters are represented in a matrix grid of six-by-six matrix. The user should focus on one of the 36 character cells while each row and column of the grid is intensified randomly and sequentially. The P300, observed in EEG signals, is created by the intersection of the target row and column which causes detection of the target stimuli with a probability of 1/6 (in case of high accuracy of flashing operation). Also when the target stimulus is rarely presented in the random sequence of stimuli causes a neural reaction to unpredictable but recognizable event and a P300 response is evoked [3]. Generally when the subject is involved with the task to recognize the targets, the P300 wave happens and the signal amplitude varies with the unlikelihood of the targets. Its dormancy changes with the difficulty of recognizing the target stimulus from the standard stimuli [3].The attended character of the matrix can be extracted by proper feature extraction and classification of P300. A plenty of procedures for feature extraction and classification have been applied to improve the performance of originally reported speller [3], such as stepwise linear discriminate analysis (SWLDA) [4, 5], wavelets [1], support vector machines [6, 7, 8] and matched filtering [9]. Till now, BCI-related P300 research has mostly considered on signals from standard P300 scalp locations. While in [10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16] it has been proven that the use of additional locations, especially posterior sites, may improve classification accuracy, but it has not been addressed to particular offline and online studies. Recently, auditory version improvement of the visual P300 speller allows locked in patients who have problem in the visual system to use the P300 speller system by relating two numbers to each letter which indicate the row and column of letter position [17]. Now a new technology is needed which can substitute a keyboard with no alphabet menu. The technology will be handy for blind people and useful for healthy persons who need to work hands free with their computer or mobile. The aim of this thesis is to improve EEG detection through source localization for a new BCI application to type with EEG signals without using alphabet menu. / +98-9359576229

Hĺbková mozgová stimulácia (DBS) predstavuje účinnú liečbu pre pacientov s Parkinsonovou chorobou (PD) alebo farmakorezistentnou epilepsiou. Avšak mechanizmy, ktorými znižuje počet záchvatov a zlepšuje pohyb, zostávajú ešte do značnej miery neznáme. Pre lepšie pochopenie a určenie, v ktorých frekvenčných pásmach je zmena najdôležitejšia, boli urobené porovnania medzi vypnutou a zapnutou DBS pomocou korelačnej metódy a indexu fázového posunu. Jedenásť pacientov s PD a naimplantovanými neurostimulátormi z firiem Medtronic a St.Jude Medical bolo predmetom nahraných dát použitých v tejto práci. Výsledky dokazujú, že zmena konektivity počas DBS nastane a zároveň, že najviac ovplyvňuje najvyššie frekvencie ako beta, nízka gama a vysoká gama. Zmeny v týchto frekvenciách, zodpovedné za motorickú aktivitu, sústredenie a spracovanie informácií, sú v súlade s klinickou teóriou o PD. Počas tejto choroby je patologická beta aktivita hypersynchronizovaná a gama aktivita je znížená práve v motorických oblastiach. Ak sa gama aktivita počas zapnutej stimulácie zvyšuje, fyziologický stav pacientov sa čiastočne znovuobnovuje a tým zlepšuje ich hybnosť. Metódy a výsledky tejto práce budú použité pre ďalší výskum pacientov s PD a epilepsiou.

No description available.

Contexte théorique : L’encéphalopathie hypoxique ischémique (EHI) est une condition du nouveau-né dans laquelle les mécanismes des variables métaboliques ne sont pas totalement compris. Cette population est particulièrement à risque d’hypo- ou d’hyperglycémie néonatales (HHN). Devant le manque de données sur le fonctionnement métabolique à la suite d’une EHI, cette étude vise à déterminer l’association entre une HHN et l’activité cérébrale mesurée par électroencéphalographie (EEG). Méthodologie : 49 participants avec EHI ont été recrutés au CHU Sainte-Justine peu après leur naissance. Ils ont été monitorés en continu à l’aide de l’EEG et des segments d’intérêt se retrouvant dans les 48 premières heures de vie ont été analysés. L’anormalité de l’activité cérébrale est déterminée selon une analyse quantitative du niveau de discontinuité caractérisée par une proportion de faibles amplitudes (seuils de 25, 15, 12,5, 10 et 7,5 uV) dans le tracé EEG. Les données de glycémie ont été recueillies de façon intermittente par le biais de prises de sang et de glucomètres de chevet. Les participants ont été répartis en 4 groupes : normoglycémie, hyperglycémie, hypoglycémie et glycémie variable (hypo- et hyper-). Résultats : L’analyse de covariation non -paramétrique a relevé une différence significative entre les ratios de discontinuité pour le seuil de 15 uV (F = 3,070 p = 0,037). Les analyses de comparaisons appariées ont montré une différence positive entre le groupe VARIABLE et le groupe contrôle (NORMO-) pour tous les seuils ainsi qu’une différence positive entre le groupe HYPER- et le groupe contrôle pour 4 des 5 seuils (25, 15, 12,5 et 7,5 uV). Aucune différence n’a été relevé entre le groupe HYPO- et le groupe contrôle pour tous les seuils. Conclusions : La variabilité glycémique et l’hyperglycémie seule ont été montrées comme étant associées à une activité cérébrale altérée caractérisée par un tracé de plus faible amplitude mesurée avec l’EEG. / Background: Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a newborn condition in which the underlying mechanisms still require further understanding. This clinical population is particularly prone to neonatal hypo- and hyperglycemia (NHH). Given the need to improve our understanding of metabolic functioning following HIE, this study aims to determine the association of NHH on the brain’s background electrophysiological activity measured by electroencephalography (EEG). Methodology: Forty-nine newborns with HIE were recruited at Sainte-Justine University Hospital Center. Continuous EEG monitoring was started as soon as possible and segments of interest in the first 48h of life were analyzed. Brain activity was quantitatively assessed according to an index of discontinuity characterized by the proportion of low EEG amplitudes per segment (< 25, 15, 12.5, 10 and 7.5 uV cutoffs). Glucose measurements were intermittently collected using blood samples and bedside glucometers and were retrospectively retrieved from medical charts. Participants were separated in 4 groups : normoglycemia, hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia and both (hyper- and hypo-). Results: The non-parametric covariance analyses revealed a significant difference between the discontinuity index for the 15 uV threshold (F = 3.070 p = 0.037). The pairwise comparisons showed a positive difference between the group BOTH and the control group (NORMO-) for every thresholds, the labile glucose group having a higher discontinuity index. A similar difference was found between the HYPERGLYCEMIA group and the control group for 4 out 5 thresholds (25, 15, 12.5 and 7.5 uV). No difference was found between the HYPOGLYCEMIA group and the control group. Conclusion: An abnormal glycemic profile, particularly glucose lability and hyperglycemia alone, were shown to be associated with abnormal brain activity characterized by a higher discontinuity index on the EEG.

No description available.

В данной магистерской работе мы исследуем возможности построения словаря волн биомедицинских сигналов электрокардиограммы, который в дальнейшем позволит применять методы NLP для обработки временных рядов биомедицинских сигналов. В частности, мы сосредоточимся на анализе структуры пиков и интервалов электрокардиограммы здоровых и больных аритмией и другими заболеваниями людей, средствами языка python и автоматизации этого процесса для извлечения значимой информации из биомедицинских временных рядов ЭКГ. Наша конечная цель – улучшение точности и эффективности обработки и анализа биомедицинских сигналов, что имеет важное значение как для клинической диагностики, так и для научных исследований. Решение этой задачи имеет большое практическое значение для различных областей, таких как медицина, биология и фармакология, где обработка и анализ временных рядов играют важную роль. / In this master's thesis, we are exploring the possibility of constructing a dictionary of waves of biomedical electrocardiogram signals, which in the future will allow the use of NLP methods for processing time series of biomedical signals. In particular, we will focus on analyzing the structure of peaks and intervals of the electrocardiogram of healthy people and patients with arrhythmia and other diseases, using the Python language and automating this process to extract meaningful information from biomedical ECG time series. Our ultimate goal is to improve the accuracy and efficiency of biomedical signal processing and analysis, which is important for both clinical diagnostics and scientific research. The solution to this problem is of great practical importance for various fields, such as medicine, biology and pharmacology, where processing and analysis of time series play an important role.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative brain disorders, commonly diagnosed and monitored via clinical examinations, which can be imprecise and lead to a delayed or inaccurate diagnosis. Therefore, recent research has focused on finding biomarkers by analyzing brain networks’ neural activity to find abnormalities associated with PD pathology. Brain signals can be measured using Magnetoencephalography (MEG) or Electroencephalogram (EEG), which have demonstrated their practical use in decoding neural activity. Nevertheless, interpreting and labeling human neural activity measured using MEG/EEG is yet a challenging task requiring vast of time and expertise. In addition, there is a risk of introducing bias or omitting important information not recognizable by humans. This thesis investigates whether it is possible to find meaningful features relevant to PD by uncovering the brain signals’ underlying structure using self-supervised learning (SSL), requiring no labels or hand-crafted features. Four experiments on one EEG and one MEG dataset were conducted to evaluate if the features found during the SSL were meaningful, including t-SNE, silhouette coefficient, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, and classification performance. Additionally, transfer learning between the two datasets was tested. The SSL model, TS-TCC, was employed in this thesis due to its outstanding performance on two other EEGdatasets and its training efficiency. The evaluation of the EEG dataset inferred it was feasible to find meaningful features to distinguish PD from healthy controls to some extent using SSL. However, more investigations of reusing the features in a downstream task are needed. The evaluation of the MEG dataset did not reach the same satisfying result, the proposed reason, among others, was the amount of data. Lastly, transfer learning was unsuccessful in the setting of transforming knowledge from the EEG to the MEG dataset. / Parkinsons sjukdom är en av de mest förekommande neurodegenerativa hjärnsjukdomarna. Vanligtvis diagnostiseras och övervakas sjukdomen via kliniska undersökningar, dessa kan vara diffusa och leda till en fördröjd eller en felaktig diagnos. Den senaste forskning har därför fokuserat på att hitta nya biomarkörer, bland annat genom att analysera hjärnnätverkens neurala aktivitet för att hitta abnormiteter associerade med parkinsons patologi. Magnetoencefalografi (MEG) och elektroencefalogram (EEG) har visat sig vara bra tekniker för att avkoda neural aktivitet och kan därmed användas för att mäta hjärnsignaler. Dessvärre är det en utmanande uppgift att tolka och märka hjärnsignaler, det kräver mycket tid och expertis. Det finns också en risk att märkningen inte blir helt objektiv eller att viktig information som inte är upptäckbar av människor utelämnas. Denna avhandling undersöker om det är möjligt att hitta meningsfulla särdrag relevanta för parkinsons sjukdom medhjälp av självövervakad inlärning (SSL), som varken kräver etiketter eller handgjorda särdrag. För att utvärdera om särdragen funna av SSL är meningsfulla utfördes fyra experiment på ett EEG och ett MEG-dataset. Experimenten inkluderade tSNE, siluettkoefficienten, Kolmogorov-Smirnov-testet och klassificeringsprestanda. Dessutom utvärderades möjligheten att överföra särdrag mellan de två dataseten för att nå bättre resultat. TS-TCC användes som SSL modell i denna avhandling på grund av dess prestanda på två andra EEG-dataset och dess effektivitet när det kommer till träning. Utvärderingen av EEG-datat visade på att det var möjligt att hitta meningsfulla särdrag för att till viss del skilja patienter från friska kontroller. Däremot så behövs vidare undersökning av användandet av särdragen i en klassificerare. Utvärderingen av MEG-datat nådde inte samma tillfredsställande resultat; anledningen kan bland annat vara mängden data. Slutligen, det var inte möjligt att överföra särdrag mellan EEG och MEG-datat för att nå ett bättre resultat.

<p>The goal of this study was to elucidate whether articulations of visual-speech are processed phonologically, and in the same manner as auditory-speech. Phonological processing, measured through the amplitude of the Phonological Mapping Negativity (PMN), was compared across three conditions using the electroencephalogram (EEG). Planned polynomial contrasts compared conditions of related and unrelated linguistic stimuli versus a non-linguistic control stimulus. A significant Site x Condition polynomial trend at posterior sites (Pz and Oz) during the N400 tine window revealed that the unrelated condition was most negative in amplitude, an N400-like deflection in the control condition reached similar negative amplitude, while the related condition was the most positive. A significant quadratic trend of PMN amplitude differentiated between the linguistic conditions and the non-linguistic control at site Fz, but did not differentiate the related and unrelated linguistic conditions from each other. These results support a conclusion that non-lexical speech-like and gurning motions of the lips are treated differently than articulations of a meaningful nature. Moreover, the PMN response patterned similarly in the linguistic conditions, compared to the non-linguistic control, indicating phonological processing. The prediction that PMN amplitude will distinguish visual-speech events congruent or incongruent to a phonologically constrained context was not supported.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)