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60-453: NeuroFocus primarily relied on building measures of response that were translated from brain waves collected through electroencephalographic (EEG) sensors that record electrical signals produced by the brain in response to stimuli. Aside from EEG-based full brain measurements, NeuroFocus also makes use of other biometrics such as eye-tracking technology . The initial idea behind the company's founding came from Anantha K. Pradeep's encounter as

120-509: A seizure is occurring. This is known as an ictal recording, as opposed to an interictal recording, which refers to the EEG recording between seizures. To obtain an ictal recording, a prolonged EEG is typically performed accompanied by a time-synchronized video and audio recording. This can be done either as an outpatient (at home) or during a hospital admission, preferably to an Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) with nurses and other personnel trained in

180-472: A voltmeter . Recording these voltages over time gives us the EEG. The electric potential generated by an individual neuron is far too small to be picked up by EEG or MEG. EEG activity therefore always reflects the summation of the synchronous activity of thousands or millions of neurons that have similar spatial orientation. If the cells do not have similar spatial orientation, their ions do not line up and create waves to be detected. Pyramidal neurons of

240-705: A combined EEG/MEG (EMEG) approach has been investigated for the purpose of source reconstruction in epilepsy diagnosis. EEG has also been combined with positron emission tomography . This provides the advantage of allowing researchers to see what EEG signals are associated with different drug actions in the brain. Recent studies using machine learning techniques such as neural networks with statistical temporal features extracted from frontal lobe EEG brainwave data has shown high levels of success in classifying mental states (Relaxed, Neutral, Concentrating), mental emotional states (Negative, Neutral, Positive) and thalamocortical dysrhythmia . The brain's electrical charge

300-467: A first-line method of diagnosis for tumors , stroke , and other focal brain disorders, but this use has decreased with the advent of high-resolution anatomical imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT). Despite its limited spatial resolution, EEG continues to be a valuable tool for research and diagnosis. It is one of the few mobile techniques available and offers millisecond-range temporal resolution, which

360-444: A longer duration in the epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU) or at home with an ambulatory EEG. In addition, there are activating maneuvers such as photic stimulation, hyperventilation and sleep deprivation that can increase the diagnostic yield of the EEG. At times, a routine EEG is not sufficient to establish the diagnosis or determine the best course of action in terms of treatment. In this case, attempts may be made to record an EEG while

420-465: A management consultant with a client who was concerned about the results of his firm's marketing efforts. Prior to its full acquisition by Nielsen Holdings , NeuroFocus was founded in 2005 by Anantha K. Pradeep, Caroline Winnett , Robert T. Knight , Ram Gurumoorthy in 2005, with Nobel Prize–winning neuroscientist Eric R. Kandel serving as an adviser to the company. Pradeep and Gurumoorthy were both doctoral graduates from UC Berkeley and Robert T. Knight

480-526: A minority stake of 30% in NeuroFocus as part of its strategic investment into neuromarketing . In 2010, NeuroFocus acquired UK-based Neuroco as part of business expansion as NeuroFocus Europe Limited. In 2011, Nielsen Holdings acquired the remaining portion of NeuroFocus to gain full ownership of the company after the British advertising firm WPP attempted to purchase NeuroFocus. Pradeep remained as

540-421: A person is in a state of relaxed wakefulness and are mostly prominent over the parietal and occipital sites. During intense mental activity , beta waves are more prominent in frontal areas as well as other regions. If a relaxed person is told to open their eyes, one observes alpha activity decreasing and an increase in beta activity. Theta and delta waves are not generally seen in wakefulness - if they are, it

600-452: A professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at UC Berkeley as well as a professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery at UC San Francisco. Co-founder Caroline Winnett , a graduate of Berkeley Haas School of Business served as the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of Nielsen NeuroFocus in 2012 and has been serving as the executive director of Berkeley SkyDeck since 2015. In 2008, Nielsen Holdings bought

660-506: A research method). In cases where significant brain injury is suspected, e.g., after cardiac arrest, EEG can provide some prognostic information. If a patient with epilepsy is being considered for resective surgery to treat epilepsy, it is often necessary to localize the focus (source) of the epileptic brain activity with a resolution greater than what is provided by scalp EEG. In these cases, neurosurgeons typically implant strips and grids of electrodes or penetrating depth electrodes under

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720-410: A smaller parcel of brain surface) allow for better spatial resolution to narrow down the areas critical for seizure onset and propagation. Some clinical sites record data from penetrating microelectrodes. Sometimes it is more convenient or clinically necessary to perform ambulatory EEG recordings in the home of the person being tested. These studies typically have a duration of 24–72 hours. EEG and

780-428: A span of hours. Therefore, research has been directed to developing dry and semi-dry EEG bioelectronic interfaces. Dry electrode signals depend upon mechanical contact. Therefore, it can be difficult getting a usable signal because of impedance between the skin and the electrode. Some EEG systems attempt to circumvent this issue by applying a saline solution. Others have a semi dry nature and release small amounts of

840-447: Is a reliable indication of the occurrence of neural output. Not only do EEGs capture dendritic currents almost exclusively as opposed to axonal currents, they also show a preference for activity on populations of parallel dendrites and transmitting current in the same direction at the same time. Pyramidal neurons of cortical layers II/III and V extend apical dendrites to layer I. Currents moving up or down these processes underlie most of

900-550: Is a sign of brain dysfunction. EEG can detect abnormal electrical discharges such as sharp waves , spikes, or spike-and-wave complexes, as observable in people with epilepsy ; thus, it is often used to inform medical diagnosis . EEG can detect the onset and spatio-temporal (location and time) evolution of seizures and the presence of status epilepticus . It is also used to help diagnose sleep disorders , depth of anesthesia , coma , encephalopathies , cerebral hypoxia after cardiac arrest , and brain death . EEG used to be

960-413: Is about 10 μV to 100 μV in amplitude when measured from the scalp. Since an EEG voltage signal represents a difference between the voltages at two electrodes, the display of the EEG for the reading encephalographer may be set up in one of several ways. The representation of the EEG channels is referred to as a montage. When analog (paper) EEGs are used, the technologist switches between montages during

1020-525: Is an integrated system made of an array of capacitive sensors with local integrated circuitry housed in a package with batteries to power the circuitry. This level of integration was required to achieve the functional performance obtained by the electrode. The electrode was tested on an electrical test bench and on human subjects in four modalities of EEG activity, namely: (1) spontaneous EEG, (2) sensory event-related potentials, (3) brain stem potentials, and (4) cognitive event-related potentials. The performance of

1080-463: Is attached to an individual wire. Some systems use caps or nets into which electrodes are embedded; this is particularly common when high-density arrays of electrodes are needed. Electrode locations and names are specified by the International 10–20 system for most clinical and research applications (except when high-density arrays are used). This system ensures that the naming of electrodes

1140-413: Is confirmatory of epilepsy in nearly all cases (high specificity ), however up to 3.5% of the general population may have epileptiform abnormalities in an EEG without ever having had a seizure (low false positive rate ) or with a very low risk of developing epilepsy in the future. When a routine EEG is normal and there is a high suspicion or need to confirm epilepsy, it may be repeated or performed with

1200-506: Is consistent across laboratories. In most clinical applications, 19 recording electrodes (plus ground and system reference) are used. A smaller number of electrodes are typically used when recording EEG from neonates . Additional electrodes can be added to the standard set-up when a clinical or research application demands increased spatial resolution for a particular area of the brain. High-density arrays (typically via cap or net) can contain up to 256 electrodes more-or-less evenly spaced around

1260-410: Is maintained by billions of neurons . Neurons are electrically charged (or "polarized") by membrane transport proteins that pump ions across their membranes. Neurons are constantly exchanging ions with the extracellular milieu, for example to maintain resting potential and to propagate action potentials . Ions of similar charge repel each other, and when many ions are pushed out of many neurons at

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1320-488: Is not possible with CT, PET, or MRI. Derivatives of the EEG technique include evoked potentials (EP), which involves averaging the EEG activity time-locked to the presentation of a stimulus of some sort (visual, somatosensory , or auditory). Event-related potentials ( ERPs ) refer to averaged EEG responses that are time-locked to more complex processing of stimuli; this technique is used in cognitive science , cognitive psychology , and psychophysiological research. EEG

1380-452: Is processed in the same manner as digital scalp EEG (above), with a couple of caveats. ECoG is typically recorded at higher sampling rates than scalp EEG because of the requirements of Nyquist theorem – the subdural signal is composed of a higher predominance of higher frequency components. Also, many of the artifacts that affect scalp EEG do not impact ECoG, and therefore display filtering is often not needed. A typical adult human EEG signal

1440-423: Is stored electronically and can be filtered for display. Typical settings for the high-pass filter and a low-pass filter are 0.5–1  Hz and 35–70 Hz respectively. The high-pass filter typically filters out slow artifact, such as electrogalvanic signals and movement artifact, whereas the low-pass filter filters out high-frequency artifacts, such as electromyographic signals. An additional notch filter

1500-465: Is the gold standard diagnostic procedure to confirm epilepsy . The sensitivity of a routine EEG to detect interictal epileptiform discharges at epilepsy centers has been reported to be in the range of 29–55%. Given the low to moderate sensitivity, a routine EEG (typically with a duration of 20–30 minutes) can be normal in people that have epilepsy. When an EEG shows interictal epileptiform discharges (e.g. sharp waves, spikes, spike-and-wave , etc.) it

1560-469: Is then filtered (next paragraph), and the EEG signal is output as the deflection of pens as paper passes underneath. Most EEG systems these days, however, are digital, and the amplified signal is digitized via an analog-to-digital converter , after being passed through an anti-aliasing filter . Analog-to-digital sampling typically occurs at 256–512 Hz in clinical scalp EEG; sampling rates of up to 20 kHz are used in some research applications. During

1620-600: Is typically used to remove artifact caused by electrical power lines (60 Hz in the United States and 50 Hz in many other countries). The EEG signals can be captured with opensource hardware such as OpenBCI and the signal can be processed by freely available EEG software such as EEGLAB or the Neurophysiological Biomarker Toolbox . As part of an evaluation for epilepsy surgery, it may be necessary to insert electrodes near

1680-548: The dura mater , through either a craniotomy or a burr hole . The recording of these signals is referred to as electrocorticography (ECoG), subdural EEG (sdEEG), intracranial EEG (icEEG), or stereotactic EEG (sEEG). The signal recorded from ECoG is on a different scale of activity than the brain activity recorded from scalp EEG. Low-voltage, high-frequency components that cannot be seen easily (or at all) in scalp EEG can be seen clearly in ECoG. Further, smaller electrodes (which cover

1740-600: The electrodes will not contribute directly to an EEG; these include the base of the cortical gyrus , mesial walls of the major lobes , hippocampus , thalamus , and brain stem . A healthy human EEG will show certain patterns of activity that correlate with how awake a person is. The range of frequencies one observes are between 1 and 30 Hz, and amplitudes will vary between 20 and 100 μV. The observed frequencies are subdivided into various groups: alpha (8–13 Hz), beta (13–30 Hz), delta (0.5–4 Hz), and theta (4–7 Hz). Alpha waves are observed when

1800-407: The neocortex and allocortex . It is typically non-invasive, with the EEG electrodes placed along the scalp (commonly called "scalp EEG") using the International 10–20 system , or variations of it. Electrocorticography , involving surgical placement of electrodes, is sometimes called "intracranial EEG" . Clinical interpretation of EEG recordings is most often performed by visual inspection of

1860-411: The activity. Furthermore, the value recorded is distorted by intermediary tissues and bones, which act in a manner akin to resistors and capacitors in an electrical circuit . This means that not all neurons will contribute equally to an EEG signal, with an EEG predominately reflecting the activity of cortical neurons near the electrodes on the scalp. Deep structures within the brain further away from

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1920-582: The brain after concussion, however, at this time there are no advanced imaging techniques that can be used clinically to diagnose or monitor recovery from concussion. Several other methods to study brain function exist, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), magnetoencephalography (MEG), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR or MRS), electrocorticography (ECoG), single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), and event-related optical signal (EROS). Despite

1980-418: The care of patients with seizures. Outpatient ambulatory video EEGs typically last one to three days. An admission to an Epilepsy Monitoring Unit typically lasts several days but may last for a week or longer. While in the hospital, seizure medications are usually withdrawn to increase the odds that a seizure will occur during admission. For reasons of safety, medications are not withdrawn during an EEG outside of

2040-468: The chief executive of the firm. In 2014, NeuroFocus Europe Limited, the European and UK branch of NeuroFocus was dissolved. Electroencephalography Electroencephalography ( EEG ) is a method to record an electrogram of the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain . The biosignals detected by EEG have been shown to represent the postsynaptic potentials of pyramidal neurons in

2100-501: The cortex are thought to produce the most EEG signal because they are well-aligned and fire together. Because voltage field gradients fall off with the square of distance, activity from deep sources is more difficult to detect than currents near the skull. Scalp EEG activity shows oscillations at a variety of frequencies. Several of these oscillations have characteristic frequency ranges , spatial distributions and are associated with different states of brain functioning (e.g., waking and

2160-416: The cortex, inside sulci , in midline or deep structures (such as the cingulate gyrus or hippocampus ), or producing currents that are tangential to the skull, make far less contribution to the EEG signal. EEG recordings do not directly capture axonal action potentials . An action potential can be accurately represented as a current quadrupole , meaning that the resulting field decreases more rapidly than

2220-526: The dry electrode compared favorably with that of the standard wet electrodes in terms of skin preparation, no gel requirements (dry), and higher signal-to-noise ratio. In 1999 researchers at Case Western Reserve University , in Cleveland , Ohio , led by Hunter Peckham, used 64-electrode EEG skullcap to return limited hand movements to quadriplegic Jim Jatich. As Jatich concentrated on simple but opposite concepts like up and down, his beta-rhythm EEG output

2280-608: The first single and also multichannel dry active electrode arrays using micro-machining. The single channel dry EEG electrode construction and results were published in 1994. The arrayed electrode was also demonstrated to perform well compared to silver / silver chloride electrodes. The device consisted of four sites of sensors with integrated electronics to reduce noise by impedance matching . The advantages of such electrodes are: (1) no electrolyte used, (2) no skin preparation, (3) significantly reduced sensor size, and (4) compatibility with EEG monitoring systems. The active electrode array

2340-454: The following disorders: It can also: EEG can also be used in intensive care units for brain function monitoring to monitor for non-convulsive seizures/non-convulsive status epilepticus, to monitor the effect of sedative/anesthesia in patients in medically induced coma (for treatment of refractory seizures or increased intracranial pressure ), and to monitor for secondary brain damage in conditions such as subarachnoid hemorrhage (currently

2400-414: The gel upon contact with the scalp. Another solution uses spring loaded pin setups. These may be uncomfortable. They may also be dangerous if they were used in a situation where a patient could bump their head since they could become lodged after an impact trauma incident. Currently, headsets are available incorporating dry electrodes with up to 30 channels. Such designs are able to compensate for some of

2460-675: The hospital. Ambulatory video EEGs, therefore, have the advantage of convenience and are less expensive than a hospital admission, but they also have the disadvantage of a decreased probability of recording a clinical event. Epilepsy monitoring is often considered when patients continue having events despite being on anti-seizure medications or if there is concern that the patient's events have an alternate diagnosis, e.g., psychogenic non-epileptic seizures , syncope (fainting) , sub-cortical movement disorders , migraine variants, stroke, etc. In cases of epileptic seizures, continuous EEG monitoring helps to characterize seizures and localize/lateralize

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2520-409: The interpretation of EEGs for clinical purposes. This is done by visual inspection of the waveforms, called graphoelements. The use of computer signal processing of the EEG – so-called quantitative electroencephalography – is somewhat controversial when used for clinical purposes (although there are many research uses). In the early 1990s Babak Taheri, at University of California, Davis demonstrated

2580-473: The ones produced by the current dipole of post-synaptic potentials. In addition, since EEGs represent averages of thousands of neurons, a large population of cells in synchronous activity is necessary to cause a significant deflection on the recordings. Action potentials are very fast and, as a consequence, the chances of field summation are slim. However, neural backpropagation , as a typically longer dendritic current dipole, can be picked up by EEG electrodes and

2640-542: The recording in order to highlight or better characterize certain features of the EEG. With digital EEG, all signals are typically digitized and stored in a particular (usually referential) montage; since any montage can be constructed mathematically from any other, the EEG can be viewed by the electroencephalographer in any display montage that is desired. The EEG is read by a clinical neurophysiologist or neurologist (depending on local custom and law regarding medical specialities ), optimally one who has specific training in

2700-422: The recording, a series of activation procedures may be used. These procedures may induce normal or abnormal EEG activity that might not otherwise be seen. These procedures include hyperventilation, photic stimulation (with a strobe light), eye closure, mental activity, sleep and sleep deprivation. During (inpatient) epilepsy monitoring, a patient's typical seizure medications may be withdrawn. The digital EEG signal

2760-677: The region of the brain from which a seizure originates. This can help identify appropriate non-medication treatment options. In clinical use, EEG traces are visually analyzed by neurologists to look at various features. Increasingly, quantitative analysis of EEG is being used in conjunction with visual analysis. Quantitative analysis displays like power spectrum analysis, alpha-delta ratio, amplitude integrated EEG, and spike detection can help quickly identify segments of EEG that need close visual analysis or, in some cases, be used as surrogates for quick identification of seizures in long-term recordings. An EEG might also be helpful for diagnosing or treating

2820-434: The related study of ERPs are used extensively in neuroscience , cognitive science , cognitive psychology , neurolinguistics , and psychophysiological research, as well as to study human functions such as swallowing. Any EEG techniques used in research are not sufficiently standardised for clinical use, and many ERP studies fail to report all of the necessary processing steps for data collection and reduction, limiting

2880-500: The relatively poor spatial sensitivity of EEG, the "one-dimensional signals from localised peripheral regions on the head make it attractive for its simplistic fidelity and has allowed high clinical and basic research throughput". Thus, EEG possesses some advantages over some of those other techniques: EEG also has some characteristics that compare favorably with behavioral testing: Simultaneous EEG recordings and fMRI scans have been obtained successfully, though recording both at

2940-607: The reproducibility and replicability of many studies. Based on a 2024 systematic literature review and meta analysis commissioned by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), EEG scans cannot be used reliably to assist in making a clinical diagnosis of ADHD. However, EEG continues to be used in research on mental disabilities, such as auditory processing disorder (APD), ADD , and ADHD . EEGs have also been studied for their utility in detecting neurophysiological changes in

3000-911: The same time effectively requires that several technical difficulties be overcome, such as the presence of ballistocardiographic artifact, MRI pulse artifact and the induction of electrical currents in EEG wires that move within the strong magnetic fields of the MRI. While challenging, these have been successfully overcome in a number of studies. MRI's produce detailed images created by generating strong magnetic fields that may induce potentially harmful displacement force and torque. These fields produce potentially harmful radio frequency heating and create image artifacts rendering images useless. Due to these potential risks, only certain medical devices can be used in an MR environment. Similarly, simultaneous recordings with MEG and EEG have also been conducted, which has several advantages over using either technique alone: Recently,

3060-408: The same time, they can push their neighbours, who push their neighbours, and so on, in a wave. This process is known as volume conduction. When the wave of ions reaches the electrodes on the scalp, they can push or pull electrons on the metal in the electrodes. Since metal conducts the push and pull of electrons easily, the difference in push or pull voltages between any two electrodes can be measured by

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3120-401: The scalp. Each electrode is connected to one input of a differential amplifier (one amplifier per pair of electrodes); a common system reference electrode is connected to the other input of each differential amplifier. These amplifiers amplify the voltage between the active electrode and the reference (typically 1,000–100,000 times, or 60–100  dB of power gain). In analog EEG, the signal

3180-437: The signal quality degradation related to high impedances by optimizing pre-amplification, shielding and supporting mechanics. EEG has several limitations. Most important is its poor spatial resolution. EEG is most sensitive to a particular set of post-synaptic potentials: those generated in superficial layers of the cortex, on the crests of gyri directly abutting the skull and radial to the skull. Dendrites which are deeper in

3240-496: The signals produced by electroencephalography. EEG thus provides information with a large bias in favor of particular neuron types, locations and orientations. So it generally should not be used to make claims about global brain activity. The meninges , cerebrospinal fluid and skull "smear" the EEG signal, obscuring its intracranial source. Lobes of the brain Too Many Requests If you report this error to

3300-458: The surface of the brain, under the surface of the dura mater . This is accomplished via burr hole or craniotomy . This is referred to variously as "electrocorticography (ECoG)" , "intracranial EEG (I-EEG)" or "subdural EEG (SD-EEG)". Depth electrodes may also be placed into brain structures, such as the amygdala or hippocampus , structures, which are common epileptic foci and may not be "seen" clearly by scalp EEG. The electrocorticographic signal

3360-411: The tracing or quantitative EEG analysis . Voltage fluctuations measured by the EEG bioamplifier and electrodes allow the evaluation of normal brain activity . As the electrical activity monitored by EEG originates in neurons in the underlying brain tissue , the recordings made by the electrodes on the surface of the scalp vary in accordance with their orientation and distance to the source of

3420-433: The two is complex, with a combination of EEG power in the gamma band and phase in the delta band relating most strongly to neuron spike activity. In conventional scalp EEG, the recording is obtained by placing electrodes on the scalp with a conductive gel or paste, usually after preparing the scalp area by light abrasion to reduce impedance due to dead skin cells. Many systems typically use electrodes, each of which

3480-420: The various sleep stages ). These oscillations represent synchronized activity over a network of neurons. The neuronal networks underlying some of these oscillations are understood (e.g., the thalamocortical resonance underlying sleep spindles ), while many others are not (e.g., the system that generates the posterior basic rhythm). Research that measures both EEG and neuron spiking finds the relationship between

3540-470: Was analysed using software to identify patterns in the noise. A basic pattern was identified and used to control a switch: Above average activity was set to on, below average off. As well as enabling Jatich to control a computer cursor the signals were also used to drive the nerve controllers embedded in his hands, restoring some movement. In 2018, a functional dry electrode composed of a polydimethylsiloxane elastomer filled with conductive carbon nanofibers

3600-522: Was reported. This research was conducted at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory . EEG technology often involves applying a gel to the scalp which facilitates strong signal-to-noise ratio. This results in more reproducible and reliable experimental results. Since patients dislike having their hair filled with gel, and the lengthy setup requires trained staff on hand, utilizing EEG outside the laboratory setting can be difficult. Additionally, it has been observed that wet electrode sensors' performance reduces after

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