I wish I could say yes :(

Many thanks to the families who traveled with their child with TSC from around the country to Boston Children’s or UCLA for this EEG and other assessments. I’m so fortunate for the time I spent learning from them, as well as from @drcarolw.bsky.social in careful analysis of resting EEG. 9/9

I’m working on a stats approach to disentangle the effects of meds on EEG. In the meantime, we recommend that resting EEG studies across psychiatry are sure to collect medication data from participants. 8/x

EEG is a great tool for psychiatric & neurodevelopmental biomarkers because it is low-cost, noninvasive, and feasible for all ages & abilities. But if people are on meds that alter their EEG (antiepileptics, benzos for anxiety), EEG’s utility as a biomarker is threatened. 7/x

To see this, look in the beta range: the red dashed line is higher (amplitude), and peaks more to the left (at a lower frequency), compared to the height and peak of the gray line. Why does this matter? For biomarker studies, especially in autism and anxiety. 6/x

Children with TSC not on meds (red solid line) looked shockingly similar to typically developing children (gray line). So I think the most interesting finding is that GABAergic medications were associated with a large change in beta power (lower peak freq, higher peak amp). 5/x

the finding of greater beta power in toddlers with TSC was driven by those children with high seizure severity (Fig B: red=high, yellow=low, gray=matched typical children) or those taking GABAergic antiepileptic medication (Fig D), or both. 4/x

Toddlers with TSC showed greater periodic beta power compared to age- and sex-matched typically developing children. That means more neural oscillations at frequencies between 12-30 Hz: compare the red and gray lines above the gray bar on the x-axis. But… 3/x

We intended to characterize the resting EEG power spectrum in a cohort of toddlers with TSC (Tuberous Sclerosis Complex), a rare genetic disorder with ~50% autism rate, ~90% epilepsy rate, and tubers throughout the brain and body. 2/x