Stroboscopic artifact in digital video-EEG

Combined digital video-EEG (DV-EEG) systems eliminate many familiar technical artifacts of older analog recorders; however, new and unanticipated technical issues are becoming evident. In this report, a case is described that identifies one of these technical limitations that could represent a pitfall to accurate data interpretation. An EEG was recorded on an 18-year-old man with history of photically sensitive generalized tonic-clonic seizures, revealing photoparoxysmal responses that appeared to outlast photic stimulation. However, in an attempted video-EEG correlation, the digital video recording showed variable appearance or absence of photic bursts that did not correlate with EEG photic tick marks, initially suggesting desynchronization between video and EEG signals. However, the absence of flashes seen on the video record resulted from stroboscopic artifact caused by mismatch between strobe frequency, video sampling rate, and video display characteristics. Stroboscopic aliasing is a DV-EEG specific artifact that can complicate accurate interpretation of photoparoxysmal responses.