Methods for Measuring Brainstem-Cortical Activation Characteristics in Migraine Subjects

Abstract

A method for measuring brainstem-cortical activation characteristics in migraine subjects involves measuring brainwaves in pain-related brainstem and cortical regions, evoking somatosensory responses through electrical stimulation, and capturing brainstem and cortical activation signals to establish a judgment model. The method includes the following steps: wearing an EEG sensing unit and electrical stimulation device on the subject and emitting electrical stimulation; recording thousands of EEG data points; locating the brain current source to establish a hybrid brain model integrating volumetric and surface detection; estimating the current source distribution based on the hybrid brain model and reconstructing a dynamic brain activation map; extracting the amplitude of components from pain-related cortical and subcortical brainstem regions from the EEG data; and comparing the effective connectivity strength between the pain-related cortical and subcortical brainstem regions with the judgment model to generate comparison information and output migraine characteristic information.

Claims

1. A method for measuring brainstem-cortical activation characteristics in migraine subjects, for measuring brainwaves in pain-related cortical regions of a subject, inducing somatosensory responses through electrical stimulation, and capturing cortical activation signals under stimulation to establish a judgment model; the measurement method includes the following steps: a) wearing an electroencephalogram (EEG) sensing unit and an electrical stimulation device on the subject, wherein the electrical stimulation device is used to deliver electrical stimulation exceeding a sensory threshold to the subject; b) using the EEG sensing unit to record at least a thousand EEG data before and after the subject is kept awake and subjected to the electrical stimulation device; c) using an analysis processor to distribute the current. The analysis processor first precisely locates the electrical sources in the subject's brain to establish a hybrid brain model integrating volume and surface detection; then, based on the hybrid brain model, it estimates the current source distribution of the brainwave data and reconstructs a dynamic brain activation map of the subject's brain; finally, it extracts the amplitude of components from multiple pain-related cortical regions and subcortical brainstem regions from the brainwave data of the subject's brain cortex and subcortical brainstem regions subjected to the electrical stimulation; and then, it compares the amplitudes of the pain-related cortical regions and subcortical brainstem regions of the subject's brain with a judgment model to generate comparison information and output a migraine characteristic message.

2. The method for measuring brainstem-cortical activation characteristics of migraine subjects as described in claim 1, wherein the electroencephalogram (EEG) data are recorded for at least 50 milliseconds before the electrical stimulation and at least 100 milliseconds after the electrical stimulation.

3. The method for measuring brainstem-cortical activation characteristics of migraine subjects as described in claim 1, wherein the electrical stimulation is periodic electrical stimulation using a 4Hz square wave.

4. The method for measuring brainstem-cortical activation characteristics of migraine subjects as described in claim 1, wherein the pain-related cortical regions include the bilateral insula, primary visual cortex (V1), primary somatosensory cortex (SI), primary motor cortex (MI), and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC).

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