Analysis of EEG Signals in a Patient with Spastic Cerebral Palsy Undergone Dolphin-Assisted Therapies

Abstract

Cerebral palsy is a group of developmental disorders that affects a certain percentage of population motivating the development of several types of therapies ranging from conventional where physical therapies are included to some alternative therapies such as the dolphin-assisted therapies (DAT), in order to improve the quality of life of patients suffering these disorders. To find scientific evidence of the DAT effectiveness, in this work is developed a four-stage first-order cybernetic model: i) Signal Acquisition, ii) EEG Processing, iii) EEG Exploring and iv) Healthcare Informatics System (HIS-DAT), in order to explore the electroencephalographic signals behavior from a patient with Infantile Spastic Cerebral Palsy undergone DAT, as well as bioacoustic signals emitted by a female bottlenose dolphin via specialized transducers or passive sensors for aquatic environments, by using nonlinear mathematical tools. We found that the Power Spectrum of signals from EEG and Hydrophone yield similar densities along all DAT and the child's brain activity increases 3-fold higher-frequency when the therapist-dolphin pair interacts with the patient. These findings are supported by the Self-Affine Analysis outcomes, pointing out the emergence of negative correlations from the patient's brain activity during the whole session of DAT but the greatest changes occurred During DAT.

Cognitive mechanisms and neurological foundations of companion animals’ role in enhancing human psychological well-being

“…However, the impact of horses, aquatic animals, and other animals showed more variability. Despite the use of various animals in contemporary interventions, including horses ( Tseng et al, 2013 ; Collado-Mateo et al, 2020 ; Prieto et al, 2022 ), dolphins ( Dilts, 2008 ; Matamoros et al, 2022 ), cats ( Goleman et al, 2012 ), and birds ( Colombo et al, 2006 ), therapy dogs have emerged as the most widely used, historically established, and effective therapeutic animals ( Chandler, 2001 ).…”