title: Estimation of the cool executive function using frontal electroencephalogram signals in first-episode schizophrenia patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In schizophrenia, executive dysfunction is the most critical cognitive impairment, and is associated with abnormal neural activities, especially in the frontal lobes. Complexity estimation using electroencephalogram (EEG) recording based on nonlinear dynamics and task performance tests have been widely used to estimate executive dysfunction in schizophrenia.
  
  
  METHODS
  The present study estimated the cool executive function based on fractal dimension (FD) values of EEG data recorded from first-episode schizophrenia patients and healthy controls during the performance of three cool executive function tasks, namely, the Trail Making Test-A (TMT-A), Trail Making Test-B (TMT-B), and Tower of Hanoi tasks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results show that the complexity of the frontal EEG signals that were measured using FD was different in first-episode schizophrenia patients during the manipulation of executive function. However, no differences between patients and controls were found in the FD values of the EEG data that was recorded during the performance of the Tower of Hanoi task.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that cool executive function exhibits little impairment in first-episode schizophrenia patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yajing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Si
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Qiongqiong
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Wu
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences and Technology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Changqin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jing
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan, People's Republic of China. hongxingzhang2016@126.com.
authors.forename: Hongxing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016477:Artifacts; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004569:Electroencephalography; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
keywords: Complexity estimation; Executive dysfunction; Fractal dimension (FD); The cool executive function