DEVICE AND METHOD FOR EXAMINING A PHASE DISTRIBUTION USED TO DETERMINE A PATHOLOGICAL INTERACTION BETWEEN DIFFERENT AREAS OF THE BRAIN

摘要

A device for examining a pathological interaction between different brain areas, including a stimulation unit, which administers identical stimuli to a patient in a sequential manner, wherein the stimuli stimulate neurons of the patient in the brain areas to be examined, a measuring unit for recording measurement signals that represent a neural activity of the stimulated neurons, and a control and analysis unit for controlling the stimulation unit and for analyzing the measurement signals. The control and analysis unit transforms the measurement signals into the complex plane, examines the distribution of the phases of stimuli of the measurement signals absorbed by the measuring unit in response to the stimuli delivered to the patient, and determines the probability, with which the phase distribution differs from a uniform distribution, in order to ascertain whether a pathological interaction between the brain areas exists.