A Systematic Review of Aperiodic Neural Activity in Clinical Investigations

Aperiodic neural activity—activity with no characteristic frequency—has increasingly become a common feature of study, including in clinical work. Reports investigating aperiodic activity from patients from a broad range of clinical disorders have sought to evaluate aperiodic activity as a putative biomarker relating to diagnosis or treatment response and/or as a potential marker of underlying physiological activity. However, there is thus far no clear consensus on if and how aperiodic neural activity relates to clinical disorders. This systematic literature review, following PRISMA guidelines, examines reports of aperiodic activity in electrophysiological recordings from human patients with psychiatric and/or neurological disorders, finding 177 reports across 38 disorders. Results are summarized to evaluate current findings and examine what can be learned as pertains to the analysis, interpretations and overall utility of aperiodic neural activity in clinical investigations. Aperiodic activity is commonly reported to relate to clinical diagnoses, with 32 of 38 disorders reporting a significant effect in diagnostic and/or treatment-related studies. However, there is variation in the consistency of results across disorders, with the heterogeneity of patient groups, disease aetiologies and treatment status arising as common themes. Overall, the current variability of results, potentially confounding covariates, and limitations in current understanding of aperiodic activity suggest further work is needed before aperiodic activity can be established as a potential biomarker and/or marker of underlying pathological physiology. A series of recommendations are proposed to assist with guiding productive future work on the clinical utility of studying aperiodic neural activity.