Xu Yiwen, Tan Xiaodan, Luo Minmin, Xie Qiuyou, Yang Feng, Zhan Chang'an A
School of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, People's Republic of China.
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Image Processing, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, People's Republic of China.
J Neural Eng. 2025 Feb 5;22(1). doi: 10.1088/1741-2552/adaeec.
Entrainment has been considered as a potential mechanism underlying the facilitatory effect of rhythmic neural stimulation on neurorehabilitation. The inconsistent effects of brain stimulation on neurorehabilitation found in the literature may be caused by the variability in neural entrainment. To dissect the underlying mechanisms and optimize brain stimulation for improved effectiveness, it is critical to reliably assess the occurrence and the strength of neural entrainment. However, the factors influencing entrainment assessment are not yet fully understood. This study aims to investigate whether and how the relevant factors (i.e. data length, frequency bandwidth, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), center frequency, and the constant component of stimulus-response phase-difference) influence the assessment reliability of neural entrainment.We simulated data for 28 scenarios to answer above questions. We also recorded experimental data to verify the findings from our simulation study.A minimal data length is required to achieve reliable neural entrainment assessment, and this requirement critically depends on the bandwidth and SNR, but is independent of the center frequency and the constant component of stimulus-response phase-difference. Furthermore, changing of bandwidth is accompanied by the change of SNR.The present study has revealed how data length, bandwidth, and SNR critically affect the assessment reliability of neural entrainment. The findings provide a foundation for the parameter setting in experiment design and data analysis in neural entrainment studies. While this study is within the context of rhythmic auditory stimulation, the conclusions may be applicable for neural entrainment to other rhythmic stimulations.
夹带被认为是节律性神经刺激对神经康复促进作用的潜在机制。文献中发现的脑刺激对神经康复的不一致效果可能是由神经夹带的变异性引起的。为了剖析潜在机制并优化脑刺激以提高有效性，可靠评估神经夹带的发生情况和强度至关重要。然而，影响夹带评估的因素尚未完全明确。本研究旨在探究相关因素（即数据长度、频率带宽、信噪比（SNR）、中心频率以及刺激 - 反应相位差的恒定成分）是否以及如何影响神经夹带的评估可靠性。我们模拟了28种情况的数据来回答上述问题。我们还记录了实验数据以验证模拟研究的结果。实现可靠的神经夹带评估需要最小数据长度，这一要求主要取决于带宽和信噪比，但与中心频率以及刺激 - 反应相位差的恒定成分无关。此外，带宽的变化伴随着信噪比的变化。本研究揭示了数据长度、带宽和信噪比如何严重影响神经夹带的评估可靠性。这些发现为神经夹带研究中的实验设计和数据分析的参数设置提供了基础。虽然本研究是在节律性听觉刺激的背景下进行的，但这些结论可能适用于其他节律性刺激的神经夹带。
