Lead Inventor:
Philip Grieve, Ph.D.
Tech Ventures Reference: IR 1512
Analytical methods that can be applied to adult and newborn EEG data to increase the spatial resolution of synchrony measurements of brain activity.
Electroencephalography (EEG) measures electrical activity by measuring the electrical potential between two electrodes. Arrays of electrodes can be utilized to measure electrical activity over a wide area. Within clinical neurology and neuroscience research electroencephalography has been utilized extensively to study the function of the human brain under a variety of conditions. Mathematical measures of synchronous brain activity, such as coherence and correlation, have been used to infer similarity of behavior between neural regions. The spatial resolution of brain activity measured with electroencephalography has been limited by the volume conduction artifact introduced by the electrical variation of the skull which serves to blur the electrical signal. This artifact yields data which suggests a high degree of local synchrony. This technology mathematically reduces the effects of the volume conduction artifact and allows local brain activity to be measured with increased spatial resolution.
Removal of the signal blurring artifact resulting from the skull allows for improved spatial resolution of electroencephalography synchrony measures.
The technology measures the relationship between electrical activities in different regions of the brain using standard electroencephalography hardware that is capable of acquiring data across multiple channels. A quantitative measurement of the correlation between each electrode's signal and its immediate neighbors is then determined. The technology removes the component of the correlation due to the skull using a standard model of the volume conduction of current in the head to compute the scalp potential from an isolated, radially-oriented, cortical dipole current source.
The ability of the technology to reduce the volume conduction artifact has been demonstrated in a peer-reviewed journal article in Clinical Neurophysiology.
Applications:
-- Increases the spatial resolution possible with EEG recordings allowing for increased precision in mapping brain electrical activity via synchrony measures.
-- Can be used with dense electrode arrays placed on adult skull, infant skull, or directly on the cortical surface.
-- Can also be used within animal research programs.
Advantages:
-- Computationally improves the spatial resolution of synchrony measures obtainable with electroencephalography.
-- Does not require retrofitting of existing EEG equipment.
-- Can be utilized on infant, adult, and animal subjects.
-- Allows EEG synchrony measures to map electrical brain activity on the centimeter length scale.
-- Can be utilized with signals recorded from the cortical surface or the intact skull.
-- Analytical methods provide centimeter scale information of synchronous local brain electrical activity.
Patent information: US 2008/7415305 ~ see link below.
Licensing Status: Available for licensing and sponsored research support
Related Publications:
• P. G. Grieve, R. G. Emerson, W. P. Fifer, J. R. Isler, R. I. Stark.
Spatial correlation of the infant and adult electroencephalogram. Clin. Neurophysiol, Vol. 114, Issue 9, Sep. 2003, pp. 1594-608.