Published works

Two monographs on electroencephalography and brain reactivity.

Cover of Electroencephalography and Local Pathological Brain Processes. Atlas.

Electroencephalography and Local Pathological Brain Processes. Atlas.

REGINA D. SHMELKINA

Second edition · Lulu.com, 2017 · 186 pages

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This book is dedicated to my father and teacher David Shmelkin (1898-1978), a professor of neurology and a pioneer of clinical EEG in the former Soviet Union.

Atlas contents

  • Preface
  • Chapter I. INTRODUCTION
    • a. Recording techniques and methods of EEG
    • b. Physiological bases of EEG
    • c. Artifacts
  • Chapter II. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NORMAL EEG
    • a. Normal findings
    • b. Features of the basic EEG rhythms
    • c. Electrographic signs of an abnormal EEG
    • d. General characteristic features of the material
  • Chapter III. EEG FINDINGS IN BRAIN TUMORS
    • a. Focal brain lesions
    • 1) Extracerebral (superficial) tumors
    • 2) Intracerebral tumors
    • 3) Cysts
    • 4) Subcortex tumors
    • 5) Tumors of the third ventricle and thalamus
    • 6) Tumors of the lateral ventricles
    • 7) Corpus callosum tumors
    • 8) Basal tumors
    • 9) Tumors of the chiasma region
    • 10) Tumors of the posterior fossa (subtentorial tumors).
  • Chapter IV. HEMATOMAS
  • Chapter V. ABSCESSES OF THE BRAIN
  • Chapter VI. DIAGNOSTIC DIFFICULTIES IN EEG INTERPRETATION
  • Chapter VII. EPILEPSY AND TUMORS
  • Chapter VIII. CONCLUSION
  • Appendix A. Descriptions of EEGs (Figures 1-90).
  • BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATA
  • INDEX

Some Findings of Brain Reactivity According to EEG Data under Influence of Stimuli in Connection with Age.

REGINA SHMELKINA

Interlab L.L.C., New York, USA, 2008

Copyright © 1998 by Regina D. Shmelkina. All rights reserved.

Summary

  1. Our research has demonstrated that in response to eye opening, all individuals have adequate level of suppression of alpha-rhythm. In group I (children) and in the group III (the elderly) there appeared to be a lower level of alpha-suppression. More markedly, alpha-attenuation was expressed in group II (adults of 18-35 years old). The failure of alpha-alteration is probably associated with the fact that mechanism of alpha blocking desynchronizing system has not matured functionally and morphologically in children, and in the elderly, it is weakened.
  2. We observed the reaction of alpha-rhythm in response to various inferential stimuli (visual, auditory, tactile, and smell). In the majority of cases, we revealed the suppression of alpha-rhythm. It was most pronounced in response to visual stimuli.
  3. The imaging of various inferential stimuli in wakefulness by healthy people, when people experience distinct feelings, causes alpha-rhythm suppression more marked in the left hemisphere. It is more pronounced in response to visual stimuli than to other modalities.
  4. The studies have shown that hyperventilation with combination of eye opening causes the failure of attenuation of alpha-rhythm in the same way as alpha-index. So, alpha-amplitude in all age groups was more pronounced, but stronger in children. We suppose that it may be associated with greater sensitivity of children to hyperventilation.
  5. There is some more parallelism between alpha-suppression in response to eye opening and alpha-suppression to visual imaging: if the reactivity to eye opening is bad, the reactivity to visual imaging is also bad, and vice versa.
  6. After hyperventilation during visual imaging, the significant worsening of alpha-reactivity appears in 81.2 % of the cases.
  7. In the first seconds after eye closure, approximately in 20% of healthy people (in 52 % of the elderly) we noticed the decreasing of alpha-rhythm "exhausting," that is further fading by amplitude and index (the so-called "exhausting" of alpha). It could be explained as a result of failure of alpha-generating mechanisms.
  8. After influence of hyperventilation, the "exhausting" of alpha-rhythm after eye closure is significantly worsened (it remains only in 13.3 % of cases in the elderly), or disappears at all in healthy people.
  9. After hyperventilation, paroxysmal activity is expressed less in athletes.
  10. In the majority of neurotic patients, the "exhausting" of alpha is noticed after hyperventilation and eye closure.
  11. The obtained data can be of significance for the determination of the criteria of normal brain activity in EEG.