In this letter, we demonstrate the use of very high performance, ultrahigh impedance, electric potential probes in the detection of electrical activity in the brain. We show that these sensors, requiring no electrical or physical contact with the body, can be used to monitor the human electroencephalogram (EEG) revealing, as examples, the α and β rhythms and the α blocking phenomenon. We suggest that the advantages offered by these sensors compared with the currently used contact (Ag/AgCl) electrodes may act to stimulate new developments in multichannel EEG monitoring and in real-time electrical imaging of the brain.
REFERENCES
1.
H. Berger, Arch. F. Psychiat. 87, (1929);
see also Hans Berger on the Electroencephalogram of Man., edited by Pierre Gloor (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1969).
2.
B. J. Fisch, Spehlmann’s EEG Primer (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1991).
3.
Medical Instrumentation—Application and Design, edited by J. G. Webster (Wiley, New York, 1988).
4.
M. Hoke, in SQUID Based Measurement Techniques in the Art of Measurement, edited by B. Kramer (VCH, Braunschweig, 1988).
5.
R. J.
Prance
, A.
Debray
, T. D.
Clark
, H.
Prance
, M.
Nock
, C. J.
Harland
, and A. J.
Clippingdale
, Meas. Sci. Technol.
11
, 1
(2000
).6.
7.
J. Malmivuo and R. Plonsey, Electroencephalography in Biomagnetism—Principles and Applications of Bioelectric and Biomagnetic Fields (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995).
8.
A. C. Guyton, Structure and Function of the Nervous System (Saunders Philadelphia, 1976).
9.
S. Qian and D. Chen, Joint Time-Frequency Analysis (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1996).
This content is only available via PDF.
© 2002 American Institute of Physics.
2002
American Institute of Physics
You do not currently have access to this content.