Multi-Sensory Integration Capability to Evaluate Minimal Hepatic Encephalopathy: A ‘Just Noticeable Difference’ in the temporal window width

(submitted to Scientific Reports)

Kyoungwon Seo, Jae-kwan Kim, Hokyoung Ryu, and Daewon Jeon

Descriptions: 21 healthy controls, 20 cirrhotic patients without MHE (cirrhotic patients), and 10 cirrhotic patients with MHE (MHE patients) were recruited. Conventional psychometric tests and the temporal order judgment (TOJ) test were conducted to assess cognitive functions and the temporal window width of multi-sensory integration, respectively. During the TOJ test, prefrontal hemodynamic responses were measured by the functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).

Statistical analyses were conducted to identify group differences, the relationship between existing measures and the multi-sensory integration capability, and underlying neurophysiological mechanisms of the multi-sensory integration.

The temporal window width of multi-sensory integration is a useful measure to evaluate the MHE patients. This multi-sensory integration capability can readily represent the MHE disease severity in terms of cognitive functions and the prefrontal brain activity.

We try to extend this method to othermultisensory applications design.