Detect AD Patients by Using EEG Coherence Analysis.

The purpose of this study is to discriminate mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients from the normal aging. The EEG coherence was applied to analyze the data from auditory oddball paradigm to discriminate the differences of corticocortical connections between mild AD patients and healthy subjects. The results showed that the lower values of coherence were performed in mild AD patients than in the normal aging subjects, especially in theta band. The implications and suggestions are shown in this study.

Applying the Bispectral Analysis on Widespread Diffuse Cross-Frequency Interactive Effects.

The aim of this paper is applying the bispectral analysis on widespread diffuse cross-frequency interactive effects. The event-related potentials (ERPs) research method was used in this study and it could collect the widespread diffuse cross-frequency from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients' brain wave. In this study, the brain wave data were collected from 12 MCI subjects, 12 healthy elderly, and 12 healthy young. The findings showed that the decreased interhemispheric coherence of 8.8 Hz for MCI compared with healthy elderly in the central-parietal cortex to respective surrounding sites and each MCI subject showed significantly widespread diffuse pattern of cross-frequency interactions in comparison with the healthy controls in the left central-parietal and right frontal. This study provides some explanation and suggestions for these findings.

Age- and disease-related features of task-related brain oscillations by using mutual information.

The aim of this study was to investigate changes in task-related brain oscillations and corticocortical connections in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and those with normal aging using cross-mutual information (CMI) analysis. We hypothesized that task-related brain oscillations and corticocortical connections were affected by age- and disease-related changes, which could be reflected in the CMI analysis. Electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings were measured in 16 MCI patients, 15 healthy age-matched controls, and 16 healthy younger individuals. The frequencies and interhemispheric CMI data were estimated in all groups. The specific EEG rhythms measured were delta (δ), theta (θ), alpha (α), beta (ß), and gamma (γ) bands. Significant differences in δ, θ, α, and ß bands were observed between the younger and elderly groups. However, only the θ band was significantly different between the elderly and MCI groups. Moreover, this study used EEG recordings to investigate age- and disease-related changes in the corticocortical connections of the brain. This study proves that the θ-band frequency of the connection between the parietal and occipital lobes for the age- and disease-related changes can be depicted using the CMI analysis.

Age-related changes of task-specific brain activity in normal aging.

An important question in healthcare for older patients is whether age-related changes in cortical reorganization can be measured with advancing age. This study investigated the factors behind such age-related changes, using time-frequency analysis of event-related potentials (ERPs). We hypothesized that brain rhythms was affected by age-related changes, which could be reflected in the ERP indices. An oddball task was conducted in two experimental groups, namely young participants (N=15; mean age 23.7±2.8 years) and older participants (N=15; mean age 70.1±7.9 years). Two types of stimuli were used: the target (1 kHz frequency) and standard (2 kHz frequency). We scrutinized three ERP indices: event-related spectral power (ERPSP), inter-trial phase-locking (ITPL), and event-related cross-phase coherence (ERPCOH). Both groups performed equally well for correct response rate. However, the results revealed a statistically significant age difference for inter-trial comparison. Compared with the young, the older participants showed the following age-related changes: (a) power activity decreased; however, an increase was found only in the late (P3, 280-450 ms) theta (4-7 Hz) component over the bilateral frontal and temporo-frontal areas; (b) low phase-locking in the early (N1, 80-140 ms) theta band over the parietal/frontal (right) regions appeared; (c) the functional connections decreased in the alpha (7-13 Hz) and beta (13-30 Hz) bands, but no difference emerged in the theta band between the two groups. These results indicate that age-related changes in task-specific brain activity for a normal aging population can be depicted using the three ERP indices.

Detecting weak phase locking in chaotic system with dual attractors and ill-defined phase structure.

A quantitative approach was constructed for detecting phase locking in a chaotic system with complex attractor structure via stroboscopic method. We study the route to weak phase locking by analyzing the stroboscopic points. The onset of weak phase locking detected by using this statistical approach and the critical coupling strength calculated by Lyapunov exponent are matched well. Detailed structure of phase locking intensity is described by the Arnold tongue diagram.

Paths to globally generalized synchronization in scale-free networks.

We apply the auxiliary-system approach to study paths to globally generalized synchronization in scale-free networks of identical chaotic oscillators, including Hénon maps, logistic maps, and Lorentz oscillators. As the coupling strength epsilon between nodes of the network is increased, transitions from partially to globally generalized synchronization and intermittent behaviors near the synchronization thresholds, are found. The generalized synchronization starts from the hubs of the network and then spreads throughout the whole network with the increase of epsilon . Our result is useful for understanding the synchronization process in complex networks.

Experimental Observations of Dual-Polarization Oscillations in Laser-Diode-Pumped Wide-Aperture Thin-Slice Nd:GdVO(4) Lasers.

Dual-polarization oscillations (DPO) on different transitions have been observed for the first time in a mirror-coated thin-slice Nd:GdVO(4) laser possessing a large fluorescence anisotropy with laser-diode (LD) pumping. Oscillation spectra, input-output characteristics, pump-dependent pattern formations and noise power spectra are studied experimentally. Simultaneous oscillations of orthogonally-polarized different (higher-order) transverse modes and the resultant violation of inherent antiphase dynamics in multimode lasers have been demonstrated. The experimental results have been explained in terms of the reduced three-dimensional cross-saturation of population inversions among orthogonally-polarized modes peculiar to LD-pumped wide-aperture anisotropic lasers, in which a pumped area is larger than a lasing beam diameter.

Information flow and nontrivial collective behavior in chaotic-coupled-map lattices.

This work quantitatively demonstrates a nontrivial collective behavior, which depends on the coupling strength in chaotic-coupled-map lattices, using the interdependence measure emerging from a local unit. The amount of information flow which flows from the instantaneous mean field to a local map has been investigated using the time-delayed mutual information. Interestingly, the collective system's behavior is found to be associated with the amount of information flow. As mentioned above, both methods can effectively display the nontrivial collective behavior and the amount of information flow.