Brain disorders in children pose significant challenges to their development, impacting cognition, speech, movement, and behavior. The uncertainty surrounding prognostic information at the time of diagnosis leaves families with numerous questions about the future. The Child Brain
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Brain disorders in children pose significant challenges to their development, impacting cognition, speech, movement, and behavior. The uncertainty surrounding prognostic information at the time of diagnosis leaves families with numerous questions about the future. The Child Brain Lab at Erasmus MC Sophia Children's Hospital conducts IQ, electroencephalogram (EEG), speech, and movement tests in playful environments, enhancing scientific research and healthcare practices for a better understanding of disease progression.
The Otolaryngology department at the Child Brain Lab focuses on auditory-related potentials (ERPs) obtained from EEG measurements to predict the future development of children with brain disorders. Analyzing ERP data from experiments like Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and Acoustic Change Complex (ACC) yields insights into developmental trajectories and connections between hearing, language, and brain development.
This thesis aims to explore alternative methodologies for extracting comprehensive information from ERPs, overcoming limitations of the commonly used peak amplitude and latency analysis. Tensor decompositions are employed to exploit structural information present in the data, using data fusion methods to combine multiple datasets for improved classification and deeper insights into group differences.
Simulations on artificial ERP data demonstrate that data fusion methods perform better on two ERP tensors compared to single tensor decomposition when group differences are shared between datasets. On a real dataset, tensor decompositions show promise for classifying subjects based on auditory event-related potentials while giving more insights into the neurological sources.
This report proposes an alternative method for analyzing ERP data, highlighting the potential of tensor decompositions and data fusion techniques.