

In 1914, Napoleon Cybulski and Jelenska-Macieszyna photographed EEG recordings of experimentally induced seizures. In 1912, Ukrainian physiologist Vladimir Vladimirovich Pravdich-Neminsky published the first animal EEG and the evoked potential of the mammalian (dog). His observation of fluctuating brain activity led to the conclusion of brain waves. Beck placed electrodes directly on the surface of the brain to test for sensory stimulation. Beck started experiments on the electrical brain activity of animals. In 1890, Polish physiologist Adolf Beck published an investigation of spontaneous electrical activity of the brain of rabbits and dogs that included rhythmic oscillations altered by light. In 1875, Richard Caton (1842–1926), a physician practicing in Liverpool, presented his findings about electrical phenomena of the exposed cerebral hemispheres of rabbits and monkeys in the British Medical Journal. 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. It is one of the few mobile techniques available and offers millisecond-range temporal resolution which is not possible with CT, PET or MRI.ĭerivatives 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). Despite limited spatial resolution, EEG continues to be a valuable tool for research and diagnosis. EEG used to be 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). It is also used to diagnose sleep disorders, depth of anesthesia, coma, encephalopathies, and brain death. The latter analyses the type of neural oscillations (popularly called "brain waves") that can be observed in EEG signals in the frequency domain.ĮEG is most often used to diagnose epilepsy, which causes abnormalities in EEG readings.

The former investigates potential fluctuations time locked to an event, such as 'stimulus onset' or 'button press'. Diagnostic applications generally focus either on event-related potentials or on the spectral content of EEG. Clinically, EEG refers to the recording of the brain's spontaneous electrical activity over a period of time, as recorded from multiple electrodes placed on the scalp. Electrocorticography, involving invasive electrodes, is sometimes called intracranial EEG.ĮEG measures voltage fluctuations resulting from ionic current within the neurons of the brain. It is typically non-invasive, with the electrodes placed along the scalp. Electroencephalography ( EEG) is a method to record an electrogram of the electrical activity on the scalp that has been shown to represent the macroscopic activity of the surface layer of the brain underneath.
