Clinical applications of EEG power spectra aperiodic component analysis: A mini-review

Objective: The present mini-review summarizes recent clinical findings related to the analysis of the aperiodic component of EEG (electroencephalographic) power spectra, making them quickly accessible to medical specialists and health researchers, with the aim of boosting related research. Methods: Based on our experience about clinicians’ literature-searching, we queried the PubMed database with terms related to EEG power spectra aperiodic component analysis and selected clinical studies that referenced such terms in the title/abstract, and were published in the last five years. Results: A total of 11 journal articles, dealing with 9 different neurologic and psychiatric conditions published between 1st January 2016 – April 1st 2021, were surveyed. Conclusions: All the reviewed studies focused on exploring the pathophysiological significance of the aperiodic component and its correlation with disease presence, stage, and severity. Despite the heterogeneity of pathologies, it was possible to cluster most of them according to the mechanism underlying slope alterations, namely hypo-/hyper-excitability. It was also possible to identify some counterintuitive findings, probably related to compensation mechanisms of disease-specific neurophysiological alterations. Significance: All the findings seem to support the role of the aperiodic activity as index of excitation/inhibition balance, with promising clinical applications that might challenge the traditional approach to pathologies diagnosis/treatment/follow-up.