DeepBrain: quantitative analysis of EEG signals during oxygen breathing in professional divers (in collaboration with the Italian Navy, COMSUBIN, Le Grazie, La Spezia, Italy; University La Sapienza - Prof. L. Pastena; Department of Neuroscience, Section of Rehabilitation - University of Padova - Dr. E. Formaggio).
Oxygen toxicity is a problem in diving, with potentially fatal consequences for the diver in the water. When divers use a closed-circuit oxygen rebreathing apparatus, they are breathing O2 100% and are exposed to hyperoxide conditions. In this scenario, the body could be affected in different ways depending on the type of exposure. The electrical activity of the brain is sensitive to its oxygen supply. In this project we study the source and functional connectivity through brain sources to evaluate the physiological effects of oxygen breathing and to delineate different diving profiles, providing indications on the potential risk of a dive. The project targets the acquisition and processing of signals from distributed wearable body sensors in extreme conditions, that is during under-water training and operation of divers of the ComSubIn. Even though this could be considered as a niche project, it would provide the unique opportunity to investigating the modulation of the physiological and neurophysiological activity in such critical scenarios unveiling mechanisms that could not be observed in normal laboratory conditions and opening new perspectives in neural modulation. This is not only unique, but also poses an outside-the-norm technical challenges.
Formaggio E., Storti S.F. Pastena L., Melucci M., Ricciardi L., Faralli F., Gagliardi R., and Menegaz G.
"How expertise changes cortical sources of EEG rhythms and functional connectivity in divers under simulated deep-sea conditions."
IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng 27(3):450-456, Jan 2019. doi: 10.1109/TNSRE.2019.2894848.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30676971/
Storti S.F. Formaggio E., Pastena L., Melucci M., Ricciardi L., Faralli F., Gagliardi R. and Menegaz G.
"How expertise changes cortical sources of EEG rhythms and functional connectivity in divers under simulated deep-sea conditions."
Proceedings of the 16th IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI), Venice, Italy, Apr 8-11, 2019, pp. 147-150, doi: 10.1109/ISBI.2019.8759520.
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8759520
Pastena L., Formaggio E., Storti S.F. , Faralli F., Melucci M., Gagliardi R., Ricciardi L., and Ruffino G.
"Tracking EEG changes during the exposure to hyperbaric oxygen."
Clin Neurophysiol, 126(2):339–347, Feb 2015 ISSN: 1388-2457, doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2014.05.013.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1388245714002880
Pastena L., Formaggio E., Faralli F., Melucci M., Rossi M., Gagliardi R., Ricciardi L., and Storti S.F.
"Bluetooth Communication Interface for EEG Signal Recording in Hyperbaric Chambers."
IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng, 23(4):538–547, Jul 2015. ISSN: 1534-4320, doi: 10.1109/TNSRE.2015.2391672.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25608308/
Storti S.F., Formaggio E., Melucci M., Faralli F., Ricciardi L., Menegaz G., and Pastena L.
"Alterations of source and connectivity EEG patterns under simulated deep-sea conditions."
Biomedical Imaging (ISBI), 2015 IEEE 12th International Symposium on, Electronic ISBN: 978-1-4799-2374-8, pp. 339-342, Apr 16-19, 2015, New York, USA. doi: 10.1109/ISBI.2015.7163882.
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7163882