title: Study of the time-varying cortical connectivity during the attempt of a foot movement by Spinal Cord Injured patients.
abstract: In this study we estimated time-varying cortical connectivity patterns from a group of Spinal Cord Injured (SCI) patients during the attempt to move a paralyzed limb. This data were compared with the time-varying connectivity patterns estimated in a control group during the effective execution of the movement. Connectivity was estimated from high resolution EEG recordings with the use of realistic head modelling and the linear inverse estimation of the cortical activity. Time-varying PDC was obtained by the adaptive recursive fit of an MVAR model with time-dependent parameters, by means of a generalized recursive least-square (RLS) algorithm, taking into consideration a set of EEG epochs. Such estimator is able to follow rapid changes in the connectivity between cortical areas during an experimental task. The obtained experimental evidences support the conclusion that the SCI population involved a larger cortical network than those generated by the healthy subjects during the task performance. Such network differs for the involvement of the parietal cortices, which increases in strength near to the EMG onset.
authors.affiliation: Dep. of Human Physiology and Pharmacology of the Univ. of Rome 'La Sapienza', Dep. of Computer Science of the Univ. of Rome 'La Sapienza' and IRCCS 'Fondazione Santa Lucia', Italy. laura.astolfi@uniromal.it
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Astolfi
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cincotti
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mattia
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: De Vico Fallani
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Colosimo
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Salinari
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Marciani
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Witte
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Babiloni
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005528:Foot / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014836:Volition