Title
Neurofeedback Training Based on Motor Imagery Strategies Increases EEG Complexity in Elderly Population
Abstract
Neurofeedback training (NFT) has shown promising results in recent years as a tool to address the effects of age-related cognitive decline in the elderly. Since previous studies have linked reduced complexity of electroencephalography (EEG) signal to the process of cognitive decline, we propose the use of non-linear methods to characterise changes in EEG complexity induced by NFT. In this study, we analyse the pre- and post-training EEG from 11 elderly subjects who performed an NFT based on motor imagery (MI-NFT). Spectral changes were studied using relative power (RP) from classical frequency bands (delta, theta, alpha, and beta), whilst multiscale entropy (MSE) was applied to assess EEG-induced complexity changes. Furthermore, we analysed the subject's scores from Luria tests performed before and after MI-NFT. We found that MI-NFT induced a power shift towards rapid frequencies, as well as an increase of EEG complexity in all channels, except for C3. These improvements were most evident in frontal channels. Moreover, results from cognitive tests showed significant enhancement in intellectual and memory functions. Therefore, our findings suggest the usefulness of MI-NFT to improve cognitive functions in the elderly and encourage future studies to use MSE as a metric to characterise EEG changes induced by MI-NFT.
Year
DOI
Venue
2021
10.3390/e23121574
ENTROPY
Keywords
DocType
Volume
neurofeedback training (NFT), motor imagery (MI), sample entropy, multiscale entropy (MSE), brain-computer interfaces (BCI), elderly people, age-relate cognitive decline, Luria adult neuropsychological diagnosis (Luria-AND)
Journal
23
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
12
1099-4300
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
0
5