Transcranial Evoked Potentials Can Be Reliably Recorded with Active Electrodes

Electroencephalographic (EEG) signals evoked by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) are usually recorded with passive electrodes (PE). Active electrode (AE) systems have recently become widely available; compared to PE, they allow for easier electrode preparation and a higher-quality signal, due to the preamplification at the electrode stage, which reduces electrical line noise. The performance between the AE and PE can differ, especially with fast EEG voltage changes, which can easily occur with TMS-EEG; however, a systematic comparison in the TMS-EEG setting has not been made. Therefore, we recorded TMS-evoked EEG potentials (TEPs) in a group of healthy subjects in two sessions, one using PE and the other using AE. We stimulated the left primary motor cortex and right medial prefrontal cortex and used two different approaches to remove early TMS artefacts, Independent Component Analysis and Signal Space Projection—Source Informed Recovery. We assessed statistical differences in amplitude and topography of TEPs, and their similarity, by means of the concordance correlation coefficient (CCC). We also tested the capability of each system to approximate the final TEP waveform with a reduced number of trials. The results showed that TEPs recorded with AE and PE do not differ in amplitude and topography, and only few electrodes showed a lower-than-expected CCC between the two methods of amplification. We conclude that AE are a viable solution for TMS-EEG recording.

Protocol for Reducing COVID-19 Transmission Risk in EEG Research

Electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings provide a valuable, noninvasive methofd for measuring human brain activity. This protocol modifies our general protocol for EEG recording (Farrens et al., 2019) for use during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was created with the help of numerous experts, and it specifies a clear set of steps for interacting with research participants, using personal protective equipment (PPE), and disinfecting equipment, all with the goal of reducing the COVID-19 risks for both laboratory personnel and participants. It focuses on the use of EEG in relatively simple research studies of adults who can easily understand and follow instructions, yet can be readily adapted for studies using other types of EEG experiments or other participant populations.

ECG-Quality Assessment of Dry-Electrode Cooperative Sensors

Classical approaches for measuring high-quality ECG require the use of gel electrodes and individually shielded cables, which limit patient comfort, especially in long-term use. We recently introduced a novel sensing architecture-so-called cooperative sensors-that allow the use of active dry electrodes connected by two unshielded wires. The aim of this work is to qualitatively evaluate an ECG recorded with a dry-electrode cooperative-sensor system. To that end, preliminary observations were made on three healthy subjects. The ECGs were concurrently recorded with cooperative sensors and a gold-standard 12-lead ECG device during a stress test on a stationary bicycle. First experimental measurements demonstrated the reliability of the approach for a wearable 12-lead ECG monitoring system tested in real settings.

Two-Wired Active Spring-Loaded Dry Electrodes for EEG Measurements

Dry contact electrode-based EEG acquisition is one of the easiest ways to obtain neural information from the human brain, providing many advantages such as rapid installation, and enhanced wearability. However, high contact impedance due to insufficient electrical coupling at the electrode-scalp interface still remains a critical issue. In this paper, a two-wired active dry electrode system is proposed by combining finger-shaped spring-loaded probes and active buffer circuits. The shrinkable probes and bootstrap topology-based buffer circuitry provide reliable electrical coupling with an uneven and hairy scalp and effective input impedance conversion along with low input capacitance. Through analysis of the equivalent circuit model, the proposed electrode was carefully designed by employing off-the-shelf discrete components and a low-noise zero-drift amplifier. Several electrical evaluations such as noise spectral density measurements and input capacitance estimation were performed together with simple experiments for alpha rhythm detection. The experimental results showed that the proposed electrode is capable of clear detection for the alpha rhythm activation, with excellent electrical characteristics such as low-noise of 1.131 μV_RMS and 32.3% reduction of input capacitance.