Authors :
Presenting Author: Martin Pail, MD, PhD. – Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, St. Anne’s University Hospital Brno
Ondrej Strycek, MD, Ph.D. – Department of Neurology – Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, St. Anne’s University Hospital Brno; Jan Cimbalnik, PhD – International Clinical Research Center, St. Anne’s University Hospital, Brno; Klara Stillova, MD, PhD – Department of Neurology – Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, St. Anne’s University Hospital Brno; Jiri Mekyska, PhD – Department of Telecommunications – Faculty of Electrical Engineering andCommunication, Brno University of Technology; Stepan Miklanek, M.Sc. – Department of Telecommunications – Faculty of Electrical Engineering andCommunication, Brno University of Technology; Martin Mazanek, PhD – Institute of Computer Science, Masaryk University; Ivan Rektor, Prof., MD, PhD – Central European Institute of Technology–CEITEC, Masaryk University
Rationale:
The objective of our study was to validate the Mozart effect in epileptic patients by utilizing intracerebral electroencephalography recordings and to investigate the hypothesis that the act of listening to Mozart's music, characterized by comparable acoustic properties, would modulate high frequency oscillations (HFOs) differently in the epileptic and non-epileptic hippocampus.Methods:
A total of twenty-three patients who were candidates for epilepsy surgery underwent implantation of depth electrodes, targeting the temporal medial area. The electrodes were placed exclusively within the epileptogenic hippocampus in five patients, the non-epileptogenic hippocampus in ten patients, and both hippocampi in seven patients. The patients listened to either the first movement of Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos K. 448 or the first movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto K. 595. These compositions were selected based on their similar musical features in terms of rhythm, melody, and harmony. Subsequently, we analyzed the effect of music listening on the HFOs occurrence and characteristics (normalized entropy) in both types of hippocampi, comparing the results statistically. For HFOs detection, we used both a CS detector trained on pathological data and a Hilbert detector previously used in neuroscience to detect rather physiological events.Results:
Using CS detector, the intracerebral electroencephalography recordings revealed a significant reduction in the occurrence of normalized HFOs rates in the ripple and fast ripple frequency ranges within the hippocampus when Mozart music was listened to, regardless of the presence of the epileptogenic zone. Interestingly, the decrease in HFOs rates was more pronounced in the ripple range in the pathological hippocampus, whereas in the fast ripple range, it was more pronounced in the non-epileptic hippocampus. Vice versa, using Hilbert detection there was no significant change in the occurrence of HFOs, except for an increase in the number of oscillations in the FR range in the pathological hippocampus. Notably, the normalized entropy analysis demonstrated a significant decrease in ripples only within the epileptogenic hippocampus, whereas in the non-epileptogenic hippocampus, the decrease was observed in the fast ripple range.
Conclusions:
Our findings confirm that listening to classical music, particularly Mozart's compositions, leads to a decrease in the occurrence of assumed pathological HFOs. The influence of music on HFO occurrence and characteristics differed between the epileptic and non-epileptic hippocampus. These results suggest that music listening could potentially aid in distinguishing epileptogenic and non-epileptogenic areas, facilitating the localization of the epileptogenic focus.Funding:
Supported by project nr. LX22NPO5107 (MEYS): Funded by European Union – Next Generation EU and Czech Science Foundation project n. 22-28784S.