EVestG: a diagnostic measure for schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness associated with multiple neuropathological, neurochemical and genetic abnormalities. The benefits of a validated, quantitative diagnosis tool are well established. Electrovestibulography, a new method similar to ECOG, can detect and record neural activity generated by the vestibular system. The normal EVestG response as well as dynamic measures averaged 'background-onAA' (onAA=acceleration phase of tilt) and 'background-onBB' (onBB=deceleration phase of tilt) of excitatory (ipsi-lateral tilt) vestibular responses are compared for a small group of schizophrenia patients (n=4) and age matched healthy controls (n=10). Our preliminary results show an apparent discrimination between control and schizophrenia groups. Schizophrenia patients appear not only to exhibit an overall decreased EVestG signal amplitude but a suppressed dynamic response calculated by the averaged EVestG 'background-onBB' measure. Increased sample size is required to validate these findings.
Haghgooie
Saman
S
Diagnostic and Neurosignal Processing Group at Monash University, Victoria, Australia. saman.haghgooie@eng.monash.edu.au
Lithgow
Brian J
BJ
Winograd-Gurvich
Caroline
C
Kulkarni
Jayashri
J
D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009038:Motion; D011379:Prognosis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014726:Vestibular Nuclei / Q000033:anatomy & histology