Multichannel EEG Visualization

Electroencephalography (EEG) measures electrical brain activity by electrodes attached to the scalp. Multichannel EEG refers to a measurement with a large number of electrodes. EEG has clinical as well as scientific applications, including neurology, psychology, pharmacy, linguistics, and biology. In particular for multichannel EEG, existing visualizations do not always provide the desired insight. Therefore, this thesis introduces two new multichannel EEG visualization methods. The first method is suitable for a combination of a large number of electrodes with many time steps. This method shows a schematic overview of all electrode positions, shows measured values for specific time steps, and is provided with a context of the remaining time steps. This new method, referred to as tiled parallel coordinates, is 40% faster than an existing clinical method without loss of information. The second method visualizes the functional relationship between brain activities in different locations using EEG coherence. Existing visualizations for multichannel EEG coherence are either hypothesis-driven or result in visual clutter. Therefore, a data-driven method was developed which reduces clutter, preserves electrode positions, and presents a clear overview. This method consists of visualizations of so-called functional units for both individual datasets and group data. This results in a summary of an extensive collection of results which otherwise would be very difficult and time-consuming to assess. Results visualize differences in EEG coherence between younger and older adults, and between people in a non-fatigued and fatigued condition

Evaluation of a Bundling Technique for Parallel Coordinates

We describe a technique for bundled curve representations in parallel-coordinates plots and present a controlled user study evaluating their effectiveness. Replacing the traditional C^0 polygonal lines by C^1 continuous piecewise Bezier curves makes it easier to visually trace data points through each coordinate axis. The resulting Bezier curves can then be bundled to visualize data with given cluster structures. Curve bundles are efficient to compute, provide visual separation between data clusters, reduce visual clutter, and present a clearer overview of the dataset. A controlled user study with 14 participants confirmed the effectiveness of curve bundling for parallel-coordinates visualization: 1) compared to polygonal lines, it is equally capable of revealing correlations between neighboring data attributes; 2) its geometric cues can be effective in displaying cluster information. For some datasets curve bundling allows the color perceptual channel to be applied to other data attributes, while for complex cluster patterns, bundling and color can represent clustering far more clearly than either alone

Patienten in getallen:wiskunde in de klinische neurofysiologie

Inaugurele rede bij benoeming tot adjunct-hoogleraar Biomedische signaalanalyse i.h.b. de klinische neurofysiologi

A Computational Framework to Support the Automated Analysis of Routine Electroencephalographic Data

Epilepsy is a condition in which a patient has multiple unprovoked seizures which are not precipitated by another medical condition. It is a common neurological disorder that afflicts 1% of the population of the US, and is sometimes hard to diagnose if seizures are infrequent. Routine Electroencephalography (rEEG), where the electrical potentials of the brain are recorded on the scalp of a patient, is one of the main tools for diagnosing because rEEG can reveal indicators of epilepsy when patients are in a non-seizure state. Interpretation of rEEG is difficult and studies have shown that 20-30% of patients at specialized epilepsy centers are misdiagnosed. An improved ability to interpret rEEG could decrease the misdiagnosis rate of epilepsy. The difficulty in diagnosing epilepsy from rEEG stems from the large quantity, low signal to noise ratio (SNR), and variability of the data. A usual point of error for a clinician interpreting rEEG data is the misinterpretation of PEEs (paroxysmal EEG events) ( short bursts of electrical activity of high amplitude relative to the surrounding signals that have a duration of approximately .1 to 2 seconds). Clinical interpretation of PEEs could be improved with the development of an automated system to detect and classify PEE activity in an rEEG dataset. Systems that have attempted to automatically classify PEEs in the past have had varying degrees of success. These efforts have been hampered to a large extent by the absence of a \gold standard\u27 data set that EEG researchers could use. In this work we present a distributed, web-based collaborative system for collecting and creating a gold standard dataset for the purpose of evaluating spike detection software. We hope to advance spike detection research by creating a performance standard that facilitates comparisons between approaches of disparate research groups. Further, this work endeavors to create a new, high performance parallel implementation of ICA (independent component analysis), a potential preprocessing step for PEE classification. We also demonstrate tools for visualization and analysis to support the initial phases of spike detection research. These tools will first help to develop a standardized rEEG dataset of expert EEG interpreter opinion with which automated analysis can be trained and tested. Secondly, it will attempt to create a new framework for interdisciplinary research that will help improve our understanding of PEEs in rEEG. These improvements could ultimately advance the nuanced art of rEEG interpretation and decrease the misdiagnosis rate that leads to patients suering inappropriate treatment