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Towards low cost EEG screening for Alzheimer's Disease

Arnab Datta Chowdhury
Early detection and identification of risk markers is extremely important in managing certain neurodegenerative diseases. Identifying risk-genes is an important research trend in this regard, along with the field of imaging genomics-to understand the relationship between brain activity and genetics [3] Drawing from these themes, this paper explores the possibility of a connection between individuals' resting brain activity & the presence of the G allele of the Phosphatidylinositol-binding Clathrin Assembly Protein (PICALM) gene, towards early detection of Alzheimer's Disease. The G allele is a known risk factor associated with Alzheimer's Disease [AD] progression. To measure resting brain activity, I used the beta frequency values of the electroencephalogram (EEG) readings of sample patients. A dataset of 79 patients' EEG recordings and PICALM allele data from OpenNEURO was used in this research. From the EEG recordings, each patients' beta frequency attributes were determined using spectral analysis, using Minimum Norm Estimation (MNE) and other related computational libraries. Subsequently, I explored statistical correlation between beta wave characteristics from frontal channels and the presence of PICALM G allele, and observed strong positive correlation between the presence of the G allele and peak resting beta frequencies, specially in certain localized brain areas. This indicates the possibility of developing easily accessible risk screening for AD in the future, using standard EEG scans (e.g. 10-20 channels-as opposed to the more expensive 120/240 channel set ups) on resting patients (i.e. without any need for cognitive tests). I want to build on my findings and explore similar correlations between AD and non AD patients and also conduct research on other medical markers as well (i.e. in addition to the presence / absence of G allele). The result, approach and resources used in this paper will also be useful for new researchers wishing to explore EEG analysis in general and low cost AD screening, in particular.