Abstract

The combination of TMS and EEG has the potential to capture relevant features of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathophysiology. We used a machine learning framework to explore time-domain features characterizing AD patients compared to age-matched healthy controls (HC). More than 150 time-domain features including some related to local and distributed evoked activity were extracted from TMS-EEG data and fed into a Random Forest (RF) classifier using a leave-one-subject out validation approach. The best classification accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and F1 score were of 92.95%, 96.15%, 87.94% and 92.03% respectively when using a balanced dataset of features computed globally across the brain. The feature importance and statistical analysis revealed that the maximum amplitude of the post-TMS signal, its Hjorth complexity and the amplitude of the TEP calculated in the window 45–80 ms after the TMS-pulse were the most relevant features differentiating AD patients from HC. TMS-EEG metrics can be used as a non-invasive tool to further understand the AD pathophysiology and possibly contribute to patients’ classification as well as longitudinal disease tracking.

Details

Title
TMS-EEG perturbation biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease patients classification
Author
Tăuƫan, Alexandra-Maria 1 ; Casula, Elias P. 2 ; Pellicciari, Maria Concetta 3 ; Borghi, Ilaria 3 ; Maiella, Michele 3 ; Bonni, Sonia 3 ; Minei, Marilena 3 ; Assogna, Martina 3 ; Palmisano, Annalisa 4 ; Smeralda, Carmelo 5 ; Romanella, Sara M. 6 ; Ionescu, Bogdan 7 ; Koch, Giacomo 8 ; Santarnecchi, Emiliano 9 

 Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Precision Neuroscience and Neuromodulation Program & Network Control Laboratory, Gordon Center for Medical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Boston, USA (GRID:grid.38142.3c) (ISNI:000000041936754X); Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation, Department of Neurology, Boston, USA (GRID:grid.38142.3c) (ISNI:000000041936754X); University Politehnica of Bucharest, AI Multimedia Lab, Research Center CAMPUS, Bucharest, Romania (GRID:grid.4551.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 2109 901X) 
 Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy (GRID:grid.417778.a) (ISNI:0000 0001 0692 3437); La Sapienza University, Department of Psychology, Rome, Italy (GRID:grid.7841.a) 
 Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy (GRID:grid.417778.a) (ISNI:0000 0001 0692 3437) 
 Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Precision Neuroscience and Neuromodulation Program & Network Control Laboratory, Gordon Center for Medical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Boston, USA (GRID:grid.38142.3c) (ISNI:000000041936754X); Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation, Department of Neurology, Boston, USA (GRID:grid.38142.3c) (ISNI:000000041936754X); University of Bari Aldo Moro, Department of Education, Psychology and Communication, Bari, Italy (GRID:grid.7644.1) (ISNI:0000 0001 0120 3326) 
 University of Siena, Siena Brain Investigation & Neuromodulation Lab (Si-BIN Lab), Department of Medicine, Surgery, Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology Section, Siena, Italy (GRID:grid.9024.f) (ISNI:0000 0004 1757 4641) 
 Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Precision Neuroscience and Neuromodulation Program & Network Control Laboratory, Gordon Center for Medical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Boston, USA (GRID:grid.38142.3c) (ISNI:000000041936754X); Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation, Department of Neurology, Boston, USA (GRID:grid.38142.3c) (ISNI:000000041936754X); University of Siena, Siena Brain Investigation & Neuromodulation Lab (Si-BIN Lab), Department of Medicine, Surgery, Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology Section, Siena, Italy (GRID:grid.9024.f) (ISNI:0000 0004 1757 4641) 
 University Politehnica of Bucharest, AI Multimedia Lab, Research Center CAMPUS, Bucharest, Romania (GRID:grid.4551.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 2109 901X) 
 University of Ferrara, Department of Neuroscience and Rehabilitation, Section of Human Physiology, Ferrara, Italy (GRID:grid.8484.0) (ISNI:0000 0004 1757 2064); Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy (GRID:grid.417778.a) (ISNI:0000 0001 0692 3437) 
 Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Precision Neuroscience and Neuromodulation Program & Network Control Laboratory, Gordon Center for Medical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Boston, USA (GRID:grid.38142.3c) (ISNI:000000041936754X); Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation, Department of Neurology, Boston, USA (GRID:grid.38142.3c) (ISNI:000000041936754X) 
Pages
7667
Publication year
2023
Publication date
2023
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2812332636
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2023. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.