EEG changes and motor deficits in Parkinson's disease patients: Correlation of motor scales and EEG power bands

Over the years motor deficit in Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients was largely studied, however, no consistent pattern of relations between quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) and motor scales emerged. There is a general lack of information on the relation between EEG changes and scales related to specific motor deficits. Therefore, the study aimed to investigate the relation between brain oscillatory activity alterations (EEG power bands) and most used PD-related motor deficit scales. A positive correlation was found between the freezing of the gait questionnaire (FOGQ) and delta spectral power band (rho=0.67; p=0.008), while a negative correlation with the same scale was observed in the alpha spectral power band (rho=-0.59, p=0.027). Additionally, motor scores measure by motor part of Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) correlated directly with theta (rho=0.55, p=0.040) and inversely with beta EEG power band (rho=-0.77, p=0.001). No significant correlation was found between spectral powers and Hoehn and Yahr (H&Y), BERG (Berg K. et. al. 1995), Modified Parkinson Activity Scale (MPAS), Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT) and Timed Up and Go Test (TUG). In conclusion, our study supports the earlier findings suggesting a link between EEG slowing and motor decline, providing more insight into the relation between EEG alteration and deficits in different motor domains. These findings indicate that EEG assessment may be a useful biomarker for objective monitoring of progression and neurophysiological effect of rehabilitation approaches in PD's.

Transfer Learning improves MI BCI models classification accuracy in Parkinson's disease patients

Motor-Imagery based BCI (MI-BCI) neurorehabilitation can improve locomotor ability and reduce the deficit symptoms in Parkinson's Disease patients. Advanced Motor-Imagery BCI methods are needed to overcome the accuracy and time-related MI BCI calibration challenges in such patients. In this study, we proposed a Multi-session FBCSP (msFBCSP) based on inter-session transfer learning and we investigated its performance compared to the single-session based FBSCP. The main result of this study is the significantly improved accuracy obtained by proposed msFBCSP compared to single-session FBCSP in PD patients (median 81.3%, range 41.2-100.0% vs median 61.1%, range 25.0-100.0%, respectively; p<0.001). In conclusion, this study proposes a transfer learning-based multi-session based FBCSP approach which allowed to significantly improve calibration accuracy in MI BCI performed on PD patients.