College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, 321004, China.
College of Mathematical Medicine, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, 321004, China.
Sci Rep. 2024 Oct 1;14(1):22789. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-73615-1.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a chronic anxiety condition characterized by persistent excessive worry, anxiety, and fear. Current diagnostic practices primarily rely on clinicians' subjective assessments and experience, highlighting a need for more objective and reliable methods. This study collected 10-minute resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG) from 45 GAD patients and 36 healthy controls (HC), focusing on six frontal EEG channels for preprocessing, data segmentation, and frequency band division. Innovatively, this study introduced the "Differential Channel" method, which enhances classification performance by enhancing the information related to anxiety from the data, thereby highlighting signal differences. Utilizing the preprocessed EEG signals, undirected functional connectivity features (Phase Lag Index, Pearson Correlation Coefficient, and Mutual Information) and directed functional connectivity features (Partial Directed Coherence) were extracted. Multiple machine learning models were applied to distinguish between GAD patients and HC. The results show that the Deep Forest classifier achieves excellent performance with a 12-second time window of DiffFeature. In particular, the classification of GAD and HC was successfully obtained by combining OriFeature and DiffFeature on Mutual Information with a maximum accuracy of 98.08%. Furthermore, it was observed that undirected functional connectivity features significantly outperformed directed functional connectivity when fewer frontal channels were used. Overall, the methodologies developed in this study offer accurate and practical identification strategies for the early screening and clinical diagnosis of GAD, offering the necessary theoretical and technical support for further enhancing the portability of EEG devices.
广泛性焦虑障碍(GAD)是一种慢性焦虑症,其特征为持续过度担忧、焦虑和恐惧。目前的诊断实践主要依赖于临床医生的主观评估和经验,这凸显出需要更客观和可靠的方法。本研究从 45 名 GAD 患者和 36 名健康对照者(HC)中采集了 10 分钟静息态脑电图(EEG),重点关注六个额部 EEG 通道进行预处理、数据分段和频带划分。本研究创新性地引入了“差分通道”方法,通过增强与焦虑相关的数据信息来提高分类性能,从而突出信号差异。利用预处理后的 EEG 信号,提取无向功能连接特征(相位滞后指数、皮尔逊相关系数和互信息)和有向功能连接特征(偏分相干性)。应用多种机器学习模型来区分 GAD 患者和 HC。结果表明,深度森林分类器在 12 秒时间窗口的 DiffFeature 上具有出色的性能。特别是,通过结合 OriFeature 和 MutualInformation 上的 DiffFeature,使用最大精度为 98.08%的偏分相干性成功对 GAD 和 HC 进行分类。此外,当使用较少的额部通道时,无向功能连接特征明显优于有向功能连接特征。总的来说,本研究中开发的方法为 GAD 的早期筛查和临床诊断提供了准确实用的识别策略,为进一步提高 EEG 设备的便携性提供了必要的理论和技术支持。