On-demand stimulation improves the efficacy of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) in refractory epilepsy. The vagus nerve is the main peripheral parasympathetic connection and seizures are known to exhibit autonomic symptoms. Therefore, we hypothesized that seizure detection is possible through vagus nerve electroneurogram (VENG) recording. We developed a metric able to measure abrupt changes in amplitude and frequency of spontaneous vagus nerve action potentials. A classifier was trained using a “leave-one-out” method on a set of 6 seizures and 3 control recordings to utilize the VENG spike feature-based metric for seizure detection. We were able to detect pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) induced acute seizures in 6/6 animals during different stages of the seizure with no false detection. The classifier detected the seizure during an early stage in 3/6 animals and at the onset of tonic clonic stage of the seizure in 3/6 animals. EMG and motion artefacts often accompany epileptic activity. We showed the “epileptic” neural signal to be independent from EMG and motion artefacts. We confirmed the existence of seizure related signals in the VENG recording and proved their applicability for seizure detection. This detection might be a promising tool to improve efficacy of VNS treatment by developing new responsive stimulation systems.

中文翻译：

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基于迷走神经电图的大鼠急性戊四唑诱发癫痫的检测

按需刺激可提高迷走神经刺激 (VNS) 在难治性癫痫中的疗效。迷走神经是主要的外周副交感神经连接，已知癫痫发作会表现出自主神经症状。因此，我们假设通过迷走神经电图 (VENG) 记录可以检测癫痫发作。我们开发了一种度量标准，能够测量自发迷走神经动作电位的幅度和频率的突然变化。分类器使用“留一法”方法对一组 6 次癫痫发作和 3 次控制记录进行训练，以利用基于 VENG 尖峰特征的指标进行癫痫发作检测。我们能够在 6/6 只动物的癫痫发作的不同阶段检测到戊四唑 (PTZ) 诱发的急性癫痫发作，而没有错误检测。分类器在 3/6 只动物的早期癫痫发作和 3/6 只动物在癫痫发作的强直阵挛阶段开始时检测到癫痫发作。EMG 和运动伪影通常伴随癫痫活动。我们展示了“癫痫”神经信号独立于 EMG 和运动伪影。我们证实了 VENG 记录中癫痫发作相关信号的存在，并证明了它们对癫痫发作检测的适用性。这种检测可能是通过开发新的响应刺激系统来提高 VNS 治疗效果的有前途的工具。我们证实了 VENG 记录中癫痫发作相关信号的存在，并证明了它们对癫痫发作检测的适用性。这种检测可能是通过开发新的响应刺激系统来提高 VNS 治疗效果的有前途的工具。我们证实了 VENG 记录中癫痫发作相关信号的存在，并证明了它们对癫痫发作检测的适用性。这种检测可能是通过开发新的响应刺激系统来提高 VNS 治疗效果的有前途的工具。