High-resolution electro-encephalogram: source estimates of Laplacian-transformed somatosensory-evoked potentials using a realistic subject head model constructed from magnetic resonance images.
A novel high-resolution electro-encephalographic (EEG) procedure is proposed, including high spatial sampling (128 channels), a realistic magnetic resonance-constructed subject head model, a multi-dipole cortical source model and regularised weighted minimum-norm linear inverse source estimation (WMN). As an innovation, EEG potentials (two healthy subjects; median-nerve, short-latency somatosensory-evoked potentials (SEPs)) are preliminarily Laplacian-transformed (LT) to remove brain electrical activity generated by subcortical sources (i.e. not represented in the source model). LT-WMN estimates are mathematically evaluated by figures of merit (WMN estimates as a reference). Results show higher dipole identifiability (0.69; 0.088), lower dipole localisation error (0.6 mm; 7.8 mm) and lower spatial dispersion (8.6 mm; 24 mm) in LT-WMN than in WMN estimates (Bonferroni corrected p < 0.001). These estimates are presented on the subject modelled cortical surface to highlight the increased spatial information content in LT-WMN compared with WMN estimates. The proposed high-resolution EEG technique is useful for the study of somatosensory functions in basic research and clinical applications.
Babiloni
F
F
Institute of Human Physiology, University of Rome, Italy. Fabio.Babiloni@uniroma1.it
Babiloni
C
C
Locche
L
L
Cincotti
F
F
Rossini
P M
PM
Carducci
F
F
D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods*; D005073:Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted