Pilot Evaluation of Sevo Systems for Epilepsy: Equitable EEG for Coarse, Dense, and Curly Hair

Collecting electroencephalography (EEG) data from individuals with coarse, curly, or afro-textured hair can be challenging, leading to noisier data, negative clinical outcomes (e.g., risk of misdiagnosis, discomfort, longer setup times, unsavory treatment, hair shaving, and microaggressions), and unreliable basic science conclusions due to the disproportionate exclusion of people with this physical feature worldwide. Our prior work demonstrated that strategically braiding hair to expose the scalp at standard locations improves impedance and that novel electrode adapters that we developed called "Sevo" can further lower impedance by more than 15x. In this article, we further quantify the signal quality of Sevo EEG compared to traditional EEG on a cohort of pediatric epileptic patients and health adult volunteers. We assessed the influence of braiding and the use of Sevo adapters on signal quality and found that Sevo reduces noise in two key metrics of the power spectra, especially for the pediatric epilepsy group. We conclude by outlining best practices for preparing coarse, curly hair for use by EEG technicians, researchers, and patients.