EEG Flashcards
(86 cards)
Electroencephalogram EEG
Measured by placing a cap with electrodes in the head that measure electrical brain activity
-> electricity from postsynaptic potentials (electricity changes when neurtransmitters connect to the new neuron)
- postsynaptic potentials take longer and can travel to the skull. Action potentials are too quick
Dipoles
Postsynaptic potentials create electric dipoles at the pyramidal cells
- plus and minus side cause a magnetic field (like a battery)
- depend on where the interaction is taking place and if the neurotransmitter is excitory or inhibitory
From neuron to electromagnetic field
Excitatory post synaptic potential causes an action potential
Excitatory neurotransmission
Excitatory neurotransmitter will lead to the cell becoming more positive (and reach action potential). The outside of the cell will become negative relative to the cell itself, which together they create a dipole, flowing from + to -
Inhibitory neurotransmission
Inhibitory neurotransmitter will lead to the cell becoming more negative (away from action potential). The outside of the cell will become positive relative to the cell itself, which causes a dipole away from the cellbody.
- reverse polarity of the voltage we record from the scalp
From dipoles to EEG
If the body is pos and the axon/dendrites are neg, then the EEG will dip into negative
If the body is negative and the axon/dendrites are pos, then the EEG will dip into the positive
-> so which ever is closest to the skull wil show on the EEG (positive or negative)
Timing of postsynaptic potentials for EEG
When they fire at the same time, it causes a stronger signal
Orientation of neurons and postsynaptic potentials in EEG
If they face opposite ways, they will cancel out eachother (positive + negative = neutral)
- if they face the same way, signal will become stronger
- in subcortical structures it will happen that they cancel each other out. We can only really measure the outskirts of the brain
What is measured by EEG
Post synaptical potentials at the apical dendritic trees of pyramidal cells
–> signal needs to be strong
- all at the same time
- all oriented the same way
- pyramidal cells have both of this in the cortex
Experimental EEG set-up
- One computer that is showing the stimuli
- One computer that measures the brain activity
-> both of these have to be connected to each other, so we know what is being shown at what point in the EEG - electrodes are connected via filters and amplifiers to the EEG computer
How do the electrodes of EEG measure/work
You measure the difference between two electrodes
- one on the scalp (active)
- other is a reference (passive -> for example earlobes)
-> result in rhythmic fluctuations in voltage
So it measures the difference between the two and that is what shows up
Reference and ground electrode locations
- tip of nose
- nasal cavity
- earlobe
- mastoid (behind the ear)
Fundamental principle of reference electrodes
Always think of ERPs as a difference between the active and reference sites
- not biased to one hemisphere (both sides if it is the ears)
- easy to attach
- not distracting
- frequently used by other investigators so the waveforms are comparable
Active, reference and ground sensors
Voltage between Active - Ground
Voltage between Reference - Ground
(A - G) - (R - G) = A - R indirectly
–> like ground doesn’t exist, but it will take out noise
Electrode placement
Fp: Frontal Pole
F: Frontal
C: Central
P: Parietal
O: Occipital
T: Temporal
Left are odd numbers, right are even. Midline is zero (-> the more to the midline, the lower the number)
- International 10-20 system
- International 10-10 system
The international 10-20 system
Refers to the distance between adjacent electrodes in percentage, which makes sure it is alwaysof equal proportion
- Nasion, Inion, Vertex en Preauricular point
- 10-10 is with 10% intervals
Electrodes
Contact point is often silver or silver chloride (Ag or AgCl)
- high resistance due to skull, a conductive gel lowers the resistance
- ground electrode reduces the environmental noise
- reference electrode provides biological baseline
- EOG (eyes), ECG (heart) and EMG (muscles) can be used simultaneously.
Electrooculography (EOG)
Can be places around the eye (vertical up or down (on the left side); horizontal left or right) to measure eye activity
EEG amplifier
Is a middle step between the input from the electrodes and the output on the screen. Makes the waves more noticible to be able to read the EEG better.
Analogue to digital conversion EEG
Input is in voltage, but the computer can’t do anything with that. Needs to be translated to something the computer can use; one’s and zero’s. We do that with sample rate
Sample rate
Time series will represent the voltage values
- sampling frequency: the rate of digitization in Hertz (Hz)
- sample rate of 500 Hz: 500 x per second = each 2 ms take one sample (per electrode)
Undersampling
Too little samples which causes an inaccurate representation in the digitalized version -> aliasing
- Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem
Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem
Sample rate should be at least 2x the fastest frequencies in the signal
-> fixes aliasing
Resolution
Amount if information in each sample -> the more the better