Fractal dimension values of cerebral and cerebellar activity in rats loaded with aluminium

• Published in: Medical & biological engineering & computing 2010-07, Vol.48 (7), p.671-679
• Main Authors: Kekovic, Goran, Culic, Milka, Martac, Ljiljana, Stojadinovic, Gordana, Capo, Ivan, Lalosevic, Dusan, Sekulic, Slobodan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Algorithms; aluminum; Aluminum - toxicity; Alzheimer disease; Alzheimer's disease; Animal cognition; Animals; Bioengineering; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering; Biomedicine; Brain research; Cerebellum - drug effects; Cerebellum - physiopathology; Cerebral and cerebellar electrocortical activity; Cerebral Cortex - drug effects; Cerebral Cortex - physiopathology; Computer Applications; Digitization; Disease; Electroencephalography - drug effects; Electroencephalography - methods; Fractal dimension; Fractals; Human Physiology; Imaging; Investigations; Male; Metabolism; Neurotoxicity; Original Article; Radiology; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Rodents; Signal processing; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; Studies; Time series; Wavelet transforms
• ISSN: 0140-0118; 1741-0444
• DOI: 10.1007/s11517-010-0620-3

Aluminium interferes with a variety of cellular metabolic processes in the mammalian nervous system and its intake might increase a risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD). While cerebral involvement even at the early stages of intoxication is well known, the role of cerebellum is underestimated. Our aim was to investigate cerebral and cerebellar electrocortical activity in adult male rats exposed to chronic aluminium treatment by nonlinear analytic tools. The adult rats in an aluminium-treated group were injected by AlCl₃, intraperitoneally (2 mg Al/kg, daily for 4 weeks). Fractal analysis of brain activity was performed off-line using Higuchi's algorithm. The average fractal dimension of electrocortical activity in aluminium-treated animals was lower than the average fractal dimension of electrocortical activity in the control rats, at cerebral but not at cerebellar level. The changes in the stationary and nonlinear properties of time series were more expressed in cerebral electrocortical activity than in cerebellar activity. This can be useful for developing effective diagnostic and therapeutic strategies in neurodegenerative diseases.