Neurophysiological monitoring is important for the assessment and prediction of regression in patients with severe neurocritical illnesses due to various etiologies. At present, the popularity of neuroelectrophysiological monitoring technology for severe neurocritical patients in China is not widespread enought, the level of monitoring varies, and there is a lack of relevant consensus and norms. This expert consensus combines the opinions of national experts in neuroelectrophysiology and neurocritical care medicine, and providess 13 expert opinions on neuroelectrophysiology technology and application. Commonly used Neurophysiologic monitoring in the Neuro-Intensive Care Unit (NICU) includes three categories: electroencephalogram, evoked potentials and electromyography. The main applications include assessment of coma level and prognosis prediction, reflection of intracranial pressure level, identification of nonconvulsive status epilepticus, assessment of sedation level, determination of brain death, and monitoring of severe peripheral neuropathy. It is recommended that NICU at all levels apply neurophysiologic monitoring techniques to severe neurocritical patients according to the expert consensus.
神经电生理监测对各种病因所致的神经重症患者的病情评估和转归预测有重要意义。目前，国内神经重症患者的神经电生理监测技术普及不够广泛，监测水平存在差异，缺乏相关的共识和规范。本专家共识结合了全国神经电生理及神经重症医学专家意见，从神经电生理技术和应用两个方面给出了13条专家意见。神经重症监护病房（NICU）常用的神经电生理监测包括脑电图、诱发电位和肌电三类。主要应用范围包括：昏迷程度评估与转归预测、反映颅内压水平、非惊厥性癫痫持续状态鉴定、镇静水平评估、脑死亡判定和重症周围神经病监测。推荐各级NICU对神经重症患者应用神经电生理监测技术参照该专家共识。.

In this joint guideline of the scientific societies and working groups mentioned in the title, evidence-based recommendations for the use of screening questionnaires and diagnostic tests in patients with neuropathic pain were developed. The systematic literature search and meta-analysis yielded the following results: Of the screening questionnaires, Douleur Neuropathique en 4 Questions (DN4), I‑DN4 (self-administered DN4), and Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs (LANSS) received a strong recommendation, while S‑LANSS (self-administered LANSS) and PainDETECT received weak recommendations for their use in the diagnostic workup of patients with possible neuropathic pain. There was a strong recommendation for the use of skin biopsy and a weak recommendation for quantitative sensory testing and nociceptive evoked potentials. The role of confocal corneal microscopy is still unclear. Functional imaging and peripheral nerve blocks are helpful in elucidating the pathophysiology, but current literature does not support their use in diagnosing neuropathic pain. In selected cases, genetic testing in specialized centers may be considered.
UNASSIGNED: In dieser gemeinsamen Leitlinie der im Titel genannten Fachgesellschaften und Arbeitsgruppen wurden evidenzbasierte Empfehlungen für den Einsatz von Screening-Fragebögen und diagnostischen Tests bei Patienten mit neuropathischen Schmerzen entwickelt. Die systematische Literatursuche und Metaanalyse erbrachte folgende Ergebnisse: Von den Screening-Fragebögen erhielten Douleur Neuropathique en 4 Questions (DN4), I‑DN4 (Patientenversion DN4) und das Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs (LANSS) eine starke Empfehlung, und S‑LANSS (Patientenversion LANSS) und painDETECT schwache Empfehlungen für ihre Verwendung im Diagnosepfad für Patienten mit möglichem neuropathischem Schmerz. Es resultierte eine starke Empfehlung für die Verwendung einer Hautbiopsie und eine schwache Empfehlung für die quantitative sensorische Testung und nozizeptiv evozierte Potenziale. Der Stellenwert der konfokalen kornealen Mikroskopie ist noch offen. Funktionelle Bildgebung und periphere Nervenblockaden sind hilfreich bei der Aufklärung der Pathophysiologie, die aktuelle Literatur unterstützt ihre Verwendung zur Diagnose von neuropathischen Schmerzen jedoch nicht. In ausgewählten Fällen kann eine genetische Untersuchung in spezialisierten Zentren in Betracht gezogen werden.

The choice of EEG reference has been widely studied. However, the choice of the most appropriate re-referencing for EEG data is still debated. Moreover, the role of EEG reference in the estimation of functional Brain-Heart Interplay (BHI), together with different multivariate modelling strategies, has not been investigated yet.
This study identifies the best methodology combining a proper EEG electrical reference and signal processing methods for an effective functional BHI assessment. The effects of the EEG reference among common average, mastoids average, Laplacian reference, Cz reference, and the reference electrode standardization technique (REST) were explored throughout different BHI methods including synthetic data generation (SDG) model, heartbeat-evoked potentials, heartbeat-evoked oscillations, and maximal information coefficient.
The SDG model exhibited high robustness between EEG references, whereas the maximal information coefficient method exhibited a high sensitivity. The common average and REST references for EEG showed a good consistency in the between-method comparisons. Laplacian, and Cz references significantly bias a BHI measurement.
The use of EEG reference based on a common average outperforms on the use of other references for consistency in estimating directed functional BHI. We do not recommend the use of EEG references based on analytical derivations as the experimental conditions may not meet the requirements of their optimal estimation, particularly in clinical settings.
The use of a common average for EEG electrical reference is concluded to be the most appropriate choice for a quantitative, functional BHI assessment.

Patients with acquired brain injury and acute or prolonged disorders of consciousness (DoC) are challenging. Evidence to support diagnostic decisions on coma and other DoC is limited but accumulating. This guideline provides the state-of-the-art evidence regarding the diagnosis of DoC, summarizing data from bedside examination techniques, functional neuroimaging and electroencephalography (EEG).
Sixteen members of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) Scientific Panel on Coma and Chronic Disorders of Consciousness, representing 10 European countries, reviewed the scientific evidence for the evaluation of coma and other DoC using standard bibliographic measures. Recommendations followed the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system. The guideline was endorsed by the EAN.
Besides a comprehensive neurological examination, the following suggestions are made: probe for voluntary eye movements using a mirror; repeat clinical assessments in the subacute and chronic setting, using the Coma Recovery Scale - Revised; use the Full Outline of Unresponsiveness score instead of the Glasgow Coma Scale in the acute setting; obtain clinical standard EEG; search for sleep patterns on EEG, particularly rapid eye movement sleep and slow-wave sleep; and, whenever feasible, consider positron emission tomography, resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), active fMRI or EEG paradigms and quantitative analysis of high-density EEG to complement behavioral assessment in patients without command following at the bedside.
Standardized clinical evaluation, EEG-based techniques and functional neuroimaging should be integrated for multimodal evaluation of patients with DoC. The state of consciousness should be classified according to the highest level revealed by any of these three approaches.

Nerve conduction studies and needle electromyography, collectively known as electrodiagnostic (EDX) studies, have been available for pediatric patients for decades, but the accessibility of this diagnostic modality and the approach to testing vary significantly depending on the physician and institution. The maturation of molecular diagnostic approaches and other diagnostic technologies such as neuromuscular ultrasound indicate that an analysis of current needs and practices for EDX studies in the pediatric population is warranted. The American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine convened a consensus panel to perform literature searches, share collective experiences, and develop a consensus statement. The panel found that electrodiagnostic studies continue to have high utility for the diagnosis of numerous childhood neuromuscular disorders, and that standardized approaches along with the use of high-quality reference values are important to maximize the diagnostic yield of these tests in infants, children, and adolescents.

The purpose of this consensus paper is to review electrophysiological abnormalities and to provide a guideline of neurophysiological assessments in cerebellar ataxias. All authors agree that standard electrophysiological methods should be systematically applied in all cases of ataxia to reveal accompanying peripheral neuropathy, the involvement of the dorsal columns, pyramidal tracts and the brainstem. Electroencephalography should also be considered, although findings are frequently non-specific. Electrophysiology helps define the neuronal systems affected by the disease in an individual patient and to understand the phenotypes of the different types of ataxia on a more general level. As yet, there is no established electrophysiological measure which is sensitive and specific of cerebellar dysfunction in ataxias. The authors agree that cerebellar brain inhibition (CBI), which is based on a paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) paradigm assessing cerebellar-cortical connectivity, is likely a useful measure of cerebellar function. Although its role in the investigation and diagnoses of different types of ataxias is unclear, it will be of interest to study its utility in this type of conditions. The authors agree that detailed clinical examination reveals core features of ataxia (i.e., dysarthria, truncal, gait and limb ataxia, oculomotor dysfunction) and is sufficient for formulating a differential diagnosis. Clinical assessment of oculomotor function, especially saccades and the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) which are most easily examined both at the bedside and with quantitative testing techniques, is of particular help for differential diagnosis in many cases. Pure clinical measures, however, are not sensitive enough to reveal minute fluctuations or early treatment response as most relevant for pre-clinical stages of disease which might be amenable to study in future intervention trials. The authors agree that quantitative measures of ataxia are desirable as biomarkers. Methods are discussed that allow quantification of ataxia in laboratory as well as in clinical and real-life settings, for instance at the patients\' home. Future studies are needed to demonstrate their usefulness as biomarkers in pharmaceutical or rehabilitation trials.

Failing to consider psychometric issues related to reliability and validity, differential deficits, and statistical power potentially undermines the conclusions of a study. In research using event-related brain potentials (ERPs), numerous contextual factors (population sampled, task, data recording, analysis pipeline, etc.) can impact the reliability of ERP scores. The present review considers the contextual factors that influence ERP score reliability and the downstream effects that reliability has on statistical analyses. Given the context-dependent nature of ERPs, it is recommended that ERP score reliability be formally assessed on a study-by-study basis. Recommended guidelines for ERP studies include 1) reporting the threshold of acceptable reliability and reliability estimates for observed scores, 2) specifying the approach used to estimate reliability, and 3) justifying how trial-count minima were chosen. A reliability threshold for internal consistency of at least 0.70 is recommended, and a threshold of 0.80 is preferred. The review also advocates the use of generalizability theory for estimating score dependability (the generalizability theory analog to reliability) as an improvement on classical test theory reliability estimates, suggesting that the latter is less well suited to ERP research. To facilitate the calculation and reporting of dependability estimates, an open-source Matlab program, the ERP Reliability Analysis Toolbox, is presented.

Detecting event related potentials (ERPs) from single trials is critical to the operation of many stimulus-driven brain computer interface (BCI) systems. The low strength of the ERP signal compared to the noise (due to artifacts and BCI irrelevant brain processes) makes this a challenging signal detection problem. Previous work has tended to focus on how best to detect a single ERP type (such as the visual oddball response). However, the underlying ERP detection problem is essentially the same regardless of stimulus modality (e.g., visual or tactile), ERP component (e.g., P300 oddball response, or the error-potential), measurement system or electrode layout. To investigate whether a single ERP detection method might work for a wider range of ERP BCIs we compare detection performance over a large corpus of more than 50 ERP BCI datasets whilst systematically varying the electrode montage, spectral filter, spatial filter and classifier training methods. We identify an interesting interaction between spatial whitening and regularised classification which made detection performance independent of the choice of spectral filter low-pass frequency. Our results show that pipeline consisting of spectral filtering, spatial whitening, and regularised classification gives near maximal performance in all cases. Importantly, this pipeline is simple to implement and completely automatic with no expert feature selection or parameter tuning required. Thus, we recommend this combination as a \"best-practice\" method for ERP detection problems.

OBJECTIVE: Psychiatric \"nosology\" is largely based on clinical phenomenology using convention-based diagnostic systems not necessarily reflecting neurobiological pathomechanisms. While progress has been made regarding its molecular biology and neuropathology, the phenotypic characterization of ADHD has not improved. Thus, validated biomarkers, more directly linked to the underlying pathology, could constitute an objective measure for the condition.
METHODS: The task force on biological markers of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) and the World Federation of ADHD commissioned this paper to develop a consensus report on potential biomarkers of ADHD. The criteria for biomarker-candidate evaluation were: (1) sensitivity >80%, (2) specificity >80%, (3) the candidate is reliable, reproducible, inexpensive, non-invasive, easy to use, and (4) confirmed by at least two independent studies in peer-reviewed journals conducted by qualified investigators.
RESULTS: No reliable ADHD biomarker has been described to date, but some promising candidates (e.g., olfactory sensitivity, substantial echogenicity) exist. A problem in the development of ADHD markers is sample heterogeneity due to aetiological and phenotypic complexity and age-dependent co-morbidities.
CONCLUSIONS: Most likely, no single ADHD biomarker can be identified. However, the use of a combination of markers may help to reduce heterogeneity and to identify homogeneous subtypes of ADHD.

This is a revision of guidelines, originally published in 2004, for the assessment of patients with neuropathic pain. Neuropathic pain is defined as pain arising as a direct consequence of a lesion or disease affecting the somatosensory system either at peripheral or central level. Screening questionnaires are suitable for identifying potential patients with neuropathic pain, but further validation of them is needed for epidemiological purposes. Clinical examination, including accurate sensory examination, is the basis of neuropathic pain diagnosis. For more accurate sensory profiling, quantitative sensory testing is recommended for selected cases in clinic, including the diagnosis of small fiber neuropathies and for research purposes. Measurement of trigeminal reflexes mediated by A-beta fibers can be used to differentiate symptomatic trigeminal neuralgia from classical trigeminal neuralgia. Measurement of laser-evoked potentials is useful for assessing function of the A-delta fiber pathways in patients with neuropathic pain. Functional brain imaging is not currently useful for individual patients in clinical practice, but is an interesting research tool. Skin biopsy to measure the intraepidermal nerve fiber density should be performed in patients with clinical signs of small fiber dysfunction. The intensity of pain and treatment effect (both in clinic and trials) should be assessed with numerical rating scale or visual analog scale. For future neuropathic pain trials, pain relief scales, patient and clinician global impression of change, the proportion of responders (50% and 30% pain relief), validated neuropathic pain quality measures and assessment of sleep, mood, functional capacity and quality of life are recommended.