Resting state effective connectivity in stroke patients. An EEG study

Scientific evidences suggest the possibility of obtaining significant information about the state and the cognitive performances of the brain by using only EEG activity during resting state. In this study graph theory was applied to functional brain networks in order to describe the topographic reorganization of the brain connectivity network related to the resting state condition in a population of 42 stroke patients, with the aim to evaluate deviation from healthy conditions and characterize patients on the basis of their clinical features. Brain connectivity was estimated by means of the spectral estimator Partial Directed Coherence and synthetic graph indices were extracted from the estimated networks. Results showed significant differences between the properties of resting state brain networks of stroke patients and those of healthy subjects. A significant effect of the lesion side on the reorganization after the stroke event was also shown.