Engineering and Physics Institute of Biomedicine NRNU MEPhI

History

2025: Development of a new method for diagnosing mental abnormalities by EEG

Russian scientists have developed a new method for diagnosing mental abnormalities using electroencephalography (EEG). The study was presented on February 28, 2025 by a group of specialists from the Engineering and Physics Institute of Biomedicine, NRNU MEPhI, led by Doctor of Medical Sciences Sergei Gulyaev. The new approach allows for a more accurate interpretation of the brain's electrical activity and the detection of functional abnormalities in the early stages.

According to the press service of the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, the researchers came to the conclusion that the classical approach to electroencephalographic research is not informative. Fixed rhythmic phenomena do not reflect the functional activity of the cortical structures of the brain, but rather are background characteristics.

𝓲

Фото: Engineering Physics Institute of Biomedicine NRNU MEPhI

A fundamental innovation of the method is to change the focus of attention when analyzing EEG. Instead of studying the brain rhythms themselves, scientists propose to study the events of their disappearance (non-synchronization), which may indicate an increase in the activity of the corresponding brain zone. Thus, to understand the processes of active brain activity, attention should be directed to areas of the brain where desynchronization and disappearance of brain rhythms are observed.

The method of analyzing EEG data proposed by MEPhI scientists allows you to obtain a picture of the functional zones of the brain, approximately corresponding to the "brain maps" obtained by other methods. To support these ideas, studies were conducted on groups of patients with various functional disorders.

These studies revealed characteristics of environmental perception disorders characteristic of mental disorders. In particular, individuals with adjustment disorder have been found to have an inhibition of the activity of the brain zones responsible for perception, and at the same time enhanced work of the constructive thinking zone, which attempts to compensate for the problems of perception.