The persistent and broadly distributed EEG synchronization might inhibit the normal processing capability of the human brain

• Published in: Neuroscience letters 2015-11, Vol.609, p.137-141
• Main Authors: Koutsoukos, Elias, Maillis, Antonis, Papageorgiou, Charalambos, Gatzonis, Stylianos, Stefanis, Costas, Angelopoulos, Elias
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Absence seizures; Auditory verbal hallucinations; Brain - physiology; Brain oscillations; EEG; Electroencephalography Phase Synchronization; Epilepsy; Excessive synchronization; Female; Hallucinations - physiopathology; Humans; Inhibition of mental processes; Male; Mental Processes; Schizophrenia; Spike wave discharges; Thought blocks
• ISSN: 0304-3940; 1872-7972
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2015.10.043

•Excessive EEG oscillations fixate the functional specificity of several brain sites.•Thought blocks are associated with functional inhibition of the brain.•Seizure absences are associated with functional inhibition of the brain.•Thought blocks and absences restrain the normal flow of mental processes. Synchrony in the brain functioning describes the mode that the components are interacted and reflect the collective behaviour of neuronal assemblies. Nevertheless, the excessive and prolonged coupling among brain sites is relevant with disturbed information routing. In the present study we investigated the possibility that the sustained oscillatory states and the common mode in which several brain sites vary their functional connectivity inhibit the ability of the brain in perceiving and processing information. The hypothesis, that in many interacting systems, greater regularity–rhythmicity corresponds to grater component self-organization and isolation, is investigated in the case of thought blocks (under persistent auditory verbal hallucinations) and epileptic absences (under spike wave discharges). Our findings indicate that the observed common mode of coupling significantly restrains the normal flow of mental processes. This erroneous “connectivity mode” in the presence of symptoms such as thought blocks and absences respectively, was found to eliminate the spontaneous synchrony variability, essentially needed for the information processing, by fixating the functional specificity of the respected brain sites.