Coupling EEG and Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) to study the cerebral function and maturation in premature neonates

Neonates, especially premature ones, are fragile and should not be moved. Current techniques for their routine neurological follow-up are usable at the child's bedside but do not cover all the aspects of brain function. It is thus necessary to develop complementary techniques, usable at the child's bedside and non-invasive, to study haemodynamic aspects (like NIRS), and to improve current techniques (like EEG).
In this work, we gave evidence that EEG source localisation is feasible in premature neonates, and gave a first evaluation of the influence of the main skull parameters (thickness, conductivity, fontanels) on the location variation range. Simultaneous recording of EEG and NIRS in premature neonates, infants, children and a rat model of epilepsy allowed us to evaluate the relevance of this approach to study physiological and pathological activities. Various information of biological and clinical interest have been extracted from these studies. This whole work highlighted the advantage of NIRS temporal resolution and ease of use compared with other techniques for haemodynamic functional explorations.
These results allowed us to propose leads to develop the use of EEG and NIRS in neonates, that should improve their follow-up and help to reduce the consequences of premature birth.

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Complete file (available soon)
Title, aknowledgements and contents
Chapter 1: Context
Chapter 2: High resolution EEG and source localisation
Chapter 3: Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)
Chapter 4 and 5: Experimental results (available soon)
Chapter 6: General discussion and Contributions