Harmonized-Multinational qEEG Norms (HarMNqEEG)

Abstract

This paper extends our frequency domain quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) methods pursuing higher sensitivity to detect Brain Developmental Disorders. Prior qEEG work lacked integration of cross-spectral information omitting important functional connectivity descriptors. Lack of geographical diversity precluded accounting for site-specific variance, increasing qEEG nuisance variance. We ameliorate these weaknesses. i) Create lifespan Hermitian Riemannian multinational qEEG norms for cross-spectral tensors. These norms result from the HarMNqEEG project fostered by the Global Brain Consortium. We calculate the norms with data from 9 countries, 12 devices, and 14 studies, including 1564 subjects. Instead of raw data, only anonymized metadata and EEG cross-spectral tensors were shared. After visual and automatic quality control developmental equations for the mean and standard deviation of qEEG traditional and Hermitian Riemannian descriptive parameters were calculated using additive mixed-effects models. We demonstrate qEEG "batch effects" and provide methods to calculate harmonized z-scores. ii) We also show that the multinational harmonized Hermitian Riemannian norms produce z-scores with increased diagnostic accuracy to predict brain dysfunction at school-age produced by malnutrition only in the first year of life. We provide data and software for constructing norms. iii) We offer open code and data to calculate different individual z-scores from the HarMNqEEG dataset. These results contribute to developing bias-free, low-cost neuroimaging technologies applicable in various health settings.