EEG-based investigation of brain connectivity changes in psychotic patients undergoing the primitive expression form of dance therapy: a methodological pilot study

Abstract

Primitive expression (PE) is a form of dance therapy (DT) that involves an interaction of ethologically and socially based forms which are supplied for re-enactment. There exist very few studies of DT applications including in their protocol the measurement of neurophysiological parameters. The present pilot study investigates the use of the correlation coefficient (ρ) and mutual information (MI), and of novel measures extracted from ρ and MI, on electroencephalographic (EEG) data recorded in patients with schizophrenia while they undergo PE DT, in order to expand the set of neurophysiology-based approaches for quantifying possible DT effects, using parameters that might provide insights about any potential brain connectivity changes in these patients during the PE DT process. Indication is provided for an acute potentiation effect, apparent at late-stage PE DT, on the inter-hemispheric connectivity in frontal areas, as well as for attenuation of the inter-hemispheric connectivity of left frontal and right central areas and for potentiation of the intra-hemispheric connectivity of frontal and central areas, bilaterally, in the transition from early to late-stage PE DT. This pilot study indicates that by using EEG connectivity measures based on ρ and MI, the set of useful neurophysiology-based approaches for quantifying possible DT effects is expanded. In the framework of the present study, the causes of the observed connectivity changes cannot be attributed with certainty to PE DT, but indications are provided that these measures may contribute to a detailed assessment of neurophysiological mechanisms possibly being affected by this therapeutic process.

G-autonomy of EEG recordings of psychotic patients undergoing the primitive expression form of dance therapy

“…Furthermore, it could be tentatively hypothesized that the difference values The above results should be examined in conjunction with the results that were presented in [4], although attention should be placed on the fact that in the present study the "autonomy" of the processes, probably reflected by the voltage recordings at each electrode, is measured in connection to all other available electrodes concurrently, making direct comparisons with electrode pair and regional connectivity indications not possible.…”

“…The present study has limitations concerning the relatively few electrodes used, the small number of subjects, and the lack of a control cohort [4]. Unless these limitations are addressed, any modifications in the EEG-derived measures cannot be solely attributed to the DT protocol used in the present study.…”

“…The subjects' group, the EEG recording procedure and EEG pre-processing have been described in detail in [4]. The EEG recording of 8 medicated schizophrenic patients were used.…”

“…Electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings were acquired in a subset of the patients suffering from (8)(9)(10)(11)(12). A further step in the investigation of neurophysiological parameters has been made in a recent study [4], as an expansion of the study initiated in [2]. Correlation coefficient (ρ), mutual information (MI) and a set of novel measures extracted from ρ and MI were computed from the EEG of schizophrenic patients that underwent PE DT.…”

“…Xn. In the present work, the EEGs of the same set of patients used in [4] were investigated for modifications in the level of G-autonomy of electrode recordings.…”