2018-BM-081

MUHAMMAD WAJAHAT
SECTION:B

Assignment 3
EEG(Electroencephalography)

INTRODUCTION
Electroencephalography is a medical imaging technique that reads scalp
electrical activity generated by brain structures.it is defined as electrical activity of an
alternating type recorded from the scalp surface after being picked up by metal electrodes and
conductive media[1]. .
The EEG measured directly from the cortical surface is called electrocardiograph while when
using depth probes it is called electrogram[2].
EEG reading is a completely non-invasive procedure that can be applied repeatedly to patients,
normal adults, and children with virtually no risk or limitation.When brain cells (neurons) are
activated, local current flows are produced. EEG measures mostly the currents that flow during
synaptic excitations of the dendrites of many pyramidal neurons in the cerebral cortex.Brain
electrical current consists mostly of Na+, K+, Ca++, and Cl- ions that are pumped through
channels in neuron membranes in the direction governed by membrane potential[3].Only large
populations of active neurons can generate electrical activity record able on the head
surface.Between electrode and neuronal layers current penetrates through skin,skull and
several other layers. Weak electrical signals detected by the scalp electrodes are massively
amplified, and then displayed on paper or stored to computer memory[4].Due to capability to
reflect both the normal and abnormal electrical activity of the brain, EEG has been found to be
a very powerful tool in the field of neurology and clinical neurophysiology.The human brain
electric activity starts around the 17-23 week
of prenatal development.It is assumed that at birth the full number of neural cells is already
developed, roughly 1011 neurons[5].

EEG is one of the fastest imaging techniques available as it often has a high sampling
rate. One hundred years ago the time course of an EEG was plotted on paper. Current
systems digitally display the data as a continuous flow of voltages on a screen.
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SECTION:B

HISTORY
During more than 100 years of its history, encephalography has undergone massive progress.
The existence of electrical currents in the brain was discovered in 1875 by an English physician
Richard Caton. Caton observed the EEG from the exposed brains of rabbits and monkeys. In
1924 Hans Berger, a German neurologist, used his ordinary radio equipment to amplify the
brain's electrical activity measured on the human scalp. He announced that weak electric
currents generated in the brain can be recorded without opening the skull, and depicted
graphically on a strip of paper. The activity that he observed changed according to the
functional status of the brain, such as in sleep, anaesthesia, lack of oxygen and in
certain neural diseases, such as in epilepsy. Berger laid the foundations for many of the
present applications of electroencephalography. He also used the word electroencephalogram
as the first for describing brain electric potentials in humans. He was right with his suggestion,
that brain activity changes in a consistent and recognizable way when the general status of the
subject changes, as from relaxation to alertness Later in 1934 Adrian and Matthews published
the paper verifying concept of “human brain waves” and identified regular oscillations around
10 to 12 Hz which they termed “alpha rhythm” [6].

First Human EEG signal.

Hans Berger (21 May 1873 – 1 June 1941)

Brain waves classification
There are 4 classes of wave is use in brain:
- beta (>13 Hz),
- alpha (8-13 Hz),
- theta (4-8 Hz),
- delta (0.5-4 Hz).

Brain sample wave

Usually, eeg measured from peak to peak and normally range from 0.5 to 100 µV in amplitude,
which is about 100 times lower than ECG signals.[2]

SAFETY OF EEG
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MUHAMMAD WAJAHAT
SECTION:B
 EEG is very safe for both the technologist and patient. However, there are known risks
associated with the procedure. Exposure to electrical current is the most important
determinant of injury risk and can cause injuries ranging from skin burns to induction of
seizures or ventricular fibrillation. According to Ebersole and Pedley's definitive text,
there are multiple potential sources that can allow harmful currents to flow through
patients connected to EEG equipment, including currents from improper grounding,
leakage, and double-grounding (37). Electrical grounding is very important in
preventing leakage of current through the patient in case of aberrant current flow
through the EEG equipment. Grounding is dependent on both the fuses within the EEG
machine and the use of proper outlets to ground the machine within the room. Leakage
currents can be from either stray capacitance or stray inductance and are most
dangerous when combined with improper grounding. Double-grounding presents
electrical risk to the EEG patient because of the existence of differences in potential
between the grounds. These differences in electrical potential create gradients for
current flow through the double-grounded patient. Double-grounding is most likely to
occur in medical settings where patients are attached to multiple (grounded) devices[7].
Tips to maintain electrical safety and avoid exposure of patients to current include the
following:
 Establish regular EEG equipment maintenance, including protection with proper
fuses.
 Always use a grounding electrode, except in situations (e.g., intensive care unit,
operating room) in which other electrical equipment is attached to the patient
(double-grounding must be avoided.
 Always connect ground electrodes to the appropriate jack of the input jack box
(never to the equipment chassis or another earth ground.
 Always use a three-prong plug. Hospital-grade power outlets should be used
whenever possible. Do not use a three-prong to two-prong converter, as the
converter does not provide the same protection as an actual grounded plug.
 Do not use extension cords for EEG machines.
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MUHAMMAD WAJAHAT
SECTION:B

WORKING OF EEG
The billions of nerve cells in your brain produce very small electrical signals that form
patterns called brain waves. During an EEG, small electrodes and wires are attached to
your head. The electrodes detect your brain waves and the EEG machine amplifies the
signals and records them in a wave pattern on graph paper or a computer screen .[8]
There are several different ways to conduct an EEG:

 Standard EEG 
 Ambulatory EEG 
 Video EEG monitoring

Recording Electrode

The EEG recording electrodes and their proper function are critical for acquiring appropriately
high quality data for interpretation. Many types of electrodes exist, often with different
characteristics.
Basically there are following types of electrodes:
 Disposable (gel-less, and pre-gelled types) \
 Reusable disc electrodes (gold, silver, stainless steel or tin)
 Headbands and electrode caps
 Saline-based electrodes
 Needle electrode.

PURPOSE OF EEG
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According to R. Bickford research and clinical applications of the EEG in humans and animals
are [8]
used to:
(1) monitor alertness, coma and brain death;
(2) locate areas of damage following head injury, stroke, tumour, etc.;
(3) test afferent pathways (by evoked potentials);
(4) monitor cognitive engagement (alpha rhythm);
(5) produce biofeedback situations, alpha, etc.;
(6) control anaesthesia depth (“servo anaesthesia”);
(7) investigate epilepsy and locate seizure origin;
(8) test epilepsy drug effects;
(9) assist in experimental cortical excision of epileptic focus;
(10) monitor human and animal brain development;
(11) test drugs for convulsive effects;
(12) investigate sleep disorder and physiology.

BLOCKDIAGRAM

ADVANTGES OF EEG

 EEG has very high temporal resolution, on the order of milliseconds rather than
seconds. EEG is commonly recorded at sampling rates between 250 and 2000 Hz in
clinical and research settings, but modern EEG data collection systems are capable
of recording at sampling rates above 20,000 Hz if desired. MEG and EROS are the
only other noninvasive cognitive neuroscience techniques that acquire data at this
level of temporal resolution.
 EEG is relatively tolerant of subject movement, unlike most other neuroimaging
techniques. There even exist methods for minimizing, and even eliminating
movement artifacts in EEG data .
 EEG is silent, which allows for better study of the responses to auditory stimuli.
 EEG does not involve exposure to high-intensity (>1 tesla) magnetic fields, as in
some of the other techniques, especially MRI and MRS. These can cause a variety of
undesirable issues with the data, and also prohibit use of these techniques with
participants that have metal implants in their body, such as metal-containing
pacemakers
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 EEG does not involve exposure to radioligands, unlike positron emission
tomography.
 ERP studies can be conducted with relatively simple paradigms, compared with
IE block-design fMRI studies
 Extremely uninvasive, unlike Electrocorticography, which actually requires
electrodes to be placed on the surface of the brain.[10]

DIS ADVANTAGES
 Low spatial resolution on the scalp. fMRI, for example, can directly display areas of
the brain that are active, while EEG requires intense interpretation just to
hypothesize what areas are activated by a particular response.
 EEG poorly measures neural activity that occurs below the upper layers of the
brain (the cortex).
 Unlike PET and MRS, cannot identify specific locations in the brain at which various
neurotransmitters, drugs, etc. can be found.
 Often takes a long time to connect a subject to EEG, as it requires precise
placement of dozens of electrodes around the head and the use of various gels,
saline solutions, and/or pastes to maintain good conductivity, and a cap is used to
keep them in place. While the length of time differs dependent on the specific EEG
device used, as a general rule it takes considerably less time to prepare a subject
for MEG, fMRI, MRS, and SPECT.
 Signal-to-noise ratio is poor, so sophisticated data analysis and relatively large
numbers of subjects are needed to extract useful information from EEG.
REFERENCES
1. E. Niedermeyer, F. H. Lopes da Silva. 1993. Electroencephalography: Basic principles,
clinical applications and related fields, 3rd edition, Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins,
Philadelphia.
2. M. Teplan .Institute of Measurement Science, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Dúbravská cesta 9, 841 04 Bratislava, Slovakia.
3. H. L. Atwood, W. A. MacKay. 1989. Essentials of neurophysiology, B.C. Decker,
Hamilton, Canada.
4. F. S. Tyner, J. R.Knott. 1989. Fundamentals of EEG technology, Volume 1: Basic concepts
and methods, Raven press, New York.
5. P. L. Nunez. 1995. Neocortical Dynamics and Human EEG Rhythms, Oxford University
Press, New York.
6. J. D. Bronzino. 1995. Principles of Electroencephalography. In: J.D. Bronzino ed. The
Biomedical Engeneering Handbook, pp. 201-212, CRC Press, Florida.
7. National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine.
8. https://mayfieldclinic.com/pe-eeg.htm
9. R.D. Bickford. 1987. Electroencephalography. In: Adelman G. ed. Encyclopedia of
Neuroscience, Birkhauser, Cambridge (USA), 371-373.
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/Electroencephalographys.