Signal quality of endovascular electroencephalography
Bryan D He1, Mosalam Ebrahimi, Leon Palafox
1Neural Signal Processing Laboratory, Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. Department of Computer Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
Journal of Neural Engineering
|January 7, 2016
Summary
Endovascular navigation offers a minimally invasive approach to obtaining high-quality brain signals, surpassing scalp recordings. This breakthrough could enable new bloodstream treatments for neurological and psychiatric diseases.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Biomedical Engineering
- Medical Devices
Background:
- Diagnosing and treating neurological and psychiatric diseases often requires invasive brain signal acquisition.
- Current methods for obtaining brain signals typically necessitate surgically opening the skull.
- Endovascular navigation has previously revolutionized cerebral vascular malformation treatment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the potential of endovascular navigation for acquiring high-quality brain signals.
- To compare the signal quality of endovascular recordings with traditional scalp recordings.
- To establish a minimally invasive method for accessing neural data.
Main Methods:
- Utilized endovascular navigation techniques to access brain signals in rabbit models.
- Applied signal processing techniques, including methods from communication theory, for analysis.
- Compared signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of endovascular signals against scalp recordings.
Main Results:
- Endovascular signals demonstrated significantly larger amplitudes compared to scalp signals.
- Analysis revealed endovascular signals possess up to 100 times better signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) than scalp recordings.
- Established endovascular navigation as a superior method for brain signal acquisition.
Conclusions:
- Endovascular navigation provides a viable minimally-invasive pathway to high-quality brain signals.
- This approach paves the way for potent electroceutical therapies delivered via the bloodstream.
- Future applications include brief outpatient procedures for patients with brain diseases.
