Electroencephalographic events prior to epileptic major motor seizures

Rationale. The goal of this study is to evaluate the electroencephalographic (EEG) events, prior to clonic phases of epileptic motor seizures. Analyzing video sequences we were able to detect these special phases of motor seizures, by image features. This can be used for an early detection and alerting for these events. In the study we analyzed 42 seizures. Based on collected data we compare the quantitative results from video detection of seizures with the features computed from EEG scalp recordings from about 3 minutes prior to the seizure. We analyze the non-stationary frequency spectrum of the EEG recordings and match it against our automated video detection output in order to investigate possible precursory EEG events. Methods. Video recordings are analyzed by applying optical flow theory, reconstruction of geometrical flow invariants, low and high pass filtering, and suitable normalizations. EEG recordings are processed with use of a Gabor wavelet technique. Comparison is achieved by means of analysis of the cross-correlation function between the derivatives of the Gabor amplitudes and the measure of “seizureness” produced by our video detection algorithm. Results. In the present study certain ranges of EEG frequencies were found, where electro-graphical events precede clonic phases of clinical motor seizures from 2–8 up to 30–40 seconds. These results could be used for construction of new generation of methods for automated motor seizure detection.