Brain-Heart Interactions in Long-Term Recordings of Epileptic Patients: Proof-of-Principle Application of Segmented Convergent Cross Mapping

Investigations of brain-heart interactions taking into account time-frequency patterns as well as topological aspects are gaining importance in epilepsy research. Convergent Cross Mapping (CCM) has been employed to quantify such linear or nonlinear interactions from short-term recordings of children with temporal lobe epilepsy in the past. For evaluation of the interactions in longer recordings an adapted CCM approach is required. This study presents a proof-of-principle application of the adapted CCM to sequential segments of concurrently recorded EEG and HRV from adult epilepsy patients to properly quantify brain-heart interactions over time.