Investigation of Electrical Signals in the Brain of People with Autism Using Effective Connectivity Network

Abstract

Unlike other functional integration methods that examine the relationship and correlation between two channels, effective connection reports the direct effect of one channel on another and expresses their causal relationship. In this article, we investigate and classify electroencephalographic (EEG) signals based on effective connectivity. In this study, we leverage the Granger causality (GC) relationship, a method for measuring effective connectivity, to analyze EEG signals from both healthy individuals and those with autism. The EEG signals examined in this article were recorded during the presentation of abstract images. Given the nonstationary nature of EEG signals, a vector autoregression model has been employed to model the relationships between signals across different channels. GC is then used to quantify the influence of these channels on one another. Selecting regions of interest (ROI) is a critical step, as the quality of the time periods under consideration significantly impacts the outcomes of the connectivity analysis among the electrodes. By comparing these effects in the ROI and various areas, we have distinguished healthy subjects from those suffering from autism. Furthermore, through statistical analysis, we have compared the results between healthy individuals and those with autism. It has been observed that the causal relationship between these two hemispheres is significantly weaker in healthy individuals compared to those with autism.

Keywords

• autism
• electroencephalographic signal
• effective connectivity
• granger causality