# Computational and Mathematical Methods for Neuroscience
## 3 Highlights and Key Contributions of Published Articles
### Medical Applications
CP, a movement disorder stemming from early, nonprogressive brain damage, often leads to additional cognitive, communicative, and behavioral symptoms. The study employed two types of tactile stimulation--'frequent' and 'infrequent'--applied to the ring finger and thumb of participants' left hands, respectively, to elicit event-related potentials (ERPs) recorded at frontal, central, and parietal scalp locations. In the control group, typical mismatch-related ERP responses were observed, while in CP patients, statistically significant differences were detected between the responses to the two stimuli on front-central and parietal channels within the 150-250 ms post-stimulus window. Additionally, a distinct late discriminative response appeared on frontal and parietal channels. These findings reveal the presence and potential observability of mismatch-related neural components in CP patients, providing insight into how CP impacts sensory processing. The authors acknowledged certain limitations, including the small sample size, suggesting future studies to build on this work with larger cohorts. [PERSON] et al. (**contribution 6**) investigated head micromovements and body posture to assess vigilance and monitor changes in mental states--an area increasingly relevant due to global population aging trends. With the proportion of individuals over 60 expected to nearly double by 2050 [13], and head tremors being a prevalent symptom in age-related conditions such as Parkinson's disease, precise monitoring of head movements is increasingly important. Head tremors are commonly experienced by older adults, often as a result of Parkinson's disease. According to the American Parkinson Disease Association, tremors affect approximately 80% of individuals with Parkinson's, making them a defining feature of the condition [14]. The miniaturization and widespread use of inertial measurement units (IMUs) in devices like smart glasses have simplified tracking, but self-reports and simple performance measures alone do not provide reliable real-time indicators of vigilance. To address this, the authors examined the relationship between head micromovements, body posture changes, and vigilance reduction during a psychomotor vigilance task. Their results demonstrate that head micromovements are valuable markers for tracking prolonged vigilance decrement and can effectively distinguish between high and low vigilance states, highlighting the potential of IMUs in monitoring cognitive states in aging populations. [PERSON] et al. (**contribution 13**) explored the brain's role in limiting exercise capacity by analyzing EEG recordings taken during incremental exercise tests (IETs) with 42 participants. IETs assess maximal aerobic power and oxygen consumption (\(\mathrm{\SIUnitSymbolO}_{2}\mathrm{max}\)), key indicators in sports medicine. The study aimed to test whether the inability to reach a \(\mathrm{\SIUnitSymbolO}_{2}\) plateau (\(\mathrm{\SIUnitSymbolO}_{2}\mathrm{pl}\)) is primarily influenced by central (brain-based) rather than peripheral (muscle-based) factors. The authors observed a general EEG power decline across all frequency bands, irrespective of \(\mathrm{\SIUnitSymbolO}_{2}\) plateau occurrence, suggesting depletion of overall \"EEG reserve\", while alpha activity in the motor cortex remained relatively preserved. They hypothesize that fatigue-associated EEG changes may reflect the brain's attempts to conserve neural resources for motor function and that these changes might vary depending on individuals' sport experience levels. This study opens up the possibility of using EEG as a predictive indicator of exercise exhaustion, which could have applications in optimizing training and managing fatigue. [PERSON] et al. (**contribution 16**) made a significant contribution to epilepsy research by using EEG to study cortical connectivity responses to hyperventilation (HV) in patients with focal epilepsy, a type of epilepsy where seizures originate in specific brain lobes.