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Eugen Trinka

Possible papers associated with this exact author name in Arrow. This page groups case-insensitive exact name matches and is not a full identity disambiguation profile.

3 papers

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YNICL Journal 2018 Journal Article

Automated diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy in the absence of interictal spikes

Thibault Verhoeven
Ana Coito
Gijs Plomp
Aljoscha Thomschewski
Francesca Pittau
Eugen Trinka
Roland Wiest
Karl Schaller

Objective: To diagnose and lateralise temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) by building a classification system that uses directed functional connectivity patterns estimated during EEG periods without visible pathological activity. Methods: Resting-state high-density EEG recording data from 20 left TLE patients, 20 right TLE patients and 35 healthy controls was used. Epochs without interictal spikes were selected. The cortical source activity was obtained for 82 regions of interest and whole-brain directed functional connectivity was estimated in the theta, alpha and beta frequency bands. These connectivity values were then used to build a classification system based on two two-class Random Forests classifiers: TLE vs healthy controls and left vs right TLE. Feature selection and classifier training were done in a leave-one-out procedure to compute the mean classification accuracy. Results: The diagnosis and lateralization classifiers achieved a high accuracy (90.7% and 90.0% respectively), sensitivity (95.0% and 90.0% respectively) and specificity (85.7% and 90.0% respectively). The most important features for diagnosis were the outflows from left and right medial temporal lobe, and for lateralization the right anterior cingulate cortex. The interaction between features was important to achieve correct classification. Significance: This is the first study to automatically diagnose and lateralise TLE based on EEG. The high accuracy achieved demonstrates the potential of directed functional connectivity estimated from EEG periods without visible pathological activity for helping in the diagnosis and lateralization of TLE.

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YNIMG Journal 2015 Journal Article

Impaired consciousness is linked to changes in effective connectivity of the posterior cingulate cortex within the default mode network

Julia Sophia Crone
Matthias Schurz
Yvonne Höller
Jürgen Bergmann
Martin Monti
Elisabeth Schmid
Eugen Trinka
Martin Kronbichler

The intrinsic connectivity of the default mode network has been associated with the level of consciousness in patients with severe brain injury. Especially medial parietal regions are considered to be highly involved in impaired consciousness. To better understand what aspect of this intrinsic architecture is linked to consciousness, we applied spectral dynamic causal modeling to assess effective connectivity within the default mode network in patients with disorders of consciousness. We included 12 controls, 12 patients in minimally conscious state and 13 in vegetative state in this study. For each subject, we first defined the four key regions of the default mode network employing a subject-specific independent component analysis approach. The resulting regions were then included as nodes in a spectral dynamic causal modeling analysis in order to assess how the causal interactions across these regions as well as the characteristics of neuronal fluctuations change with the level of consciousness. The resulting pattern of interaction in controls identified the posterior cingulate cortex as the main driven hub with positive afferent but negative efferent connections. In patients, this pattern appears to be disrupted. Moreover, the vegetative state patients exhibit significantly reduced self-inhibition and increased oscillations in the posterior cingulate cortex compared to minimally conscious state and controls. Finally, the degree of self-inhibition and strength of oscillation in this region is correlated with the level of consciousness. These findings indicate that the equilibrium between excitatory connectivity towards posterior cingulate cortex and its feedback projections is a key aspect of the relationship between alterations in consciousness after severe brain injury and the intrinsic functional architecture of the default mode network. This impairment might be principally due to the disruption of the mechanisms underlying self-inhibition and neuronal oscillations in the posterior cingulate cortex.

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YNICL Journal 2014 Journal Article

Altered network properties of the fronto-parietal network and the thalamus in impaired consciousness

Julia Sophia Crone
Andrea Soddu
Yvonne Höller
Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse
Matthias Schurz
Jürgen Bergmann
Elisabeth Schmid
Eugen Trinka

Recovery of consciousness has been associated with connectivity in the frontal cortex and parietal regions modulated by the thalamus. To examine this model and to relate alterations to deficits in cognitive functioning and conscious processing, we investigated topological network properties in patients with chronic disorders of consciousness recovered from coma. Resting state fMRI data of 34 patients with unresponsive wakefulness syndrome and 25 in minimally conscious state were compared to 28 healthy controls. We investigated global and local network characteristics. Additionally, behavioral measures were correlated with the local metrics of 28 regions within the fronto-parietal network and the thalamus. In chronic disorders of consciousness, modularity at the global level was reduced suggesting a disturbance in the optimal balance between segregation and integration. Moreover, network properties were altered in several regions which are associated with conscious processing (particularly, in medial parietal, and frontal regions, as well as in the thalamus). Between minimally conscious and unconscious patients the local efficiency of medial parietal regions differed. Alterations in the thalamus were particularly evident in non-conscious patients. Most of the regions affected in patients with impaired consciousness belong to the so-called 'rich club' of highly interconnected central nodes. Disturbances in their topological characteristics have severe impact on information integration and are reflected in deficits in cognitive functioning probably leading to a total breakdown of consciousness.

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