| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥900,000)
Fiscal Year 2017: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000)
Fiscal Year 2016: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000)
Fiscal Year 2015: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000)
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) is treatment of refractory epilepsy; however, its physiological mechanism has not been fully understood. The mechanism of VNS needs to be investigated in order to avoid ineffective operations. Because an epileptic seizure is caused by the spread of excessive discharge from neurons in the cerebrum, analyzing effects of VNS on EEG would be useful for VNS mechanism investigation. The EEG data of epileptic patients with VNS were analyzed by using Granger Causality (GC) and the graph theory. In addition, a directed graph constructed from those GC values would express neural connection. The result supported the existing hypothesis indicating the bilateral asymmetry of the VNS effect on the brain, and furthermore, it suggested that VNS would increase neural connection between the frontal lobe and other brain regions, and that should control epileptic seizures by keeping patients awake.
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