W3 - EEG Flashcards
What is EEG in one sentence. What do they pick up?
- Detect neural activity using electrodes on scalp
- Pick up small fluctuations of electrical signals from activity of (mostly cortical) neurons
Is EEG extra or intra-cranial?
- Extra-cranial/Scalp
- Non-Invasive
- Intra-Cranial
- Measure directly at exposed cortex
Who invented EEG? When and how?
Hans Berger.
Detected first EEG with wife’s scalp in 1924.
What is the Alpha Rhythm
- Inconsistent electrical signal varying between 8 - 13 Hz.
- Resting signal when someone closed their eyes.
What is the pros of EEG
- Cheap
- Good Temporal Resolution
- ms accuracy
What is the cons of EEG
1.) EEG signal biased to Gyri
- Sulci harder to detect
- Masked by gyri signals
- ) Meninges, CSF and skull “smear” EEG signal, makes localisation dificult
* Inverse Problem - ) Poor Spatial Resolution
* 1-10cm (10-100mm)
What is the inverse problem.
- If the diple solutions are known, the resulting scalp configuration of signals can be reconstructed
- However, one given scalp configuration of signal = Multiple dipole solutions
What is EEG signal measured in relation to
In relation to a reference electrode, which is either
- a neutral point like nose
- average of all scalp electrodes
How is EEG Recorded: What are the 4 tools
(1) Electrode Cap > (2) Amplifier > (4) EEG Recording
(3) Experimental Stimulation > (4) EEG Recording
What are the channels in EEG
10 – 32 – 64 – 128 – 256 channels
How are numbers on the scalp displayed in EEG
Split cortex odd and even
F = frontal P = parietal C = central O = occipital T = temporal
What is the neurophysiology of the EEG Signal.
What is it NOT
- EEG activity orginates from post-synaptic potential
- Voltage when NT binds to post-synaptic membrane’s receptor
- Causes ion channels to open/close, leading to graded changes in potential across membrane
Note: EEG does not record action potential
What can the post-synaptic potential be considered as. Can we record one post-synaptic potental?
- A small dipole
- Signals from single cells are not strong enough to be recorded outside of the head
- If many neurons spatially align, then their summed potentials add up and create the signals we can record
Many neurons spatially align > summed potentials add up and create the signals we can record: What is this called? Where is the origin?
Pooled activity
- From large number of similarly oriented neurons from large cortical pyramid cells
What is the functional unit of EEG? i.e. How many Neurons must be spatially aligned to record?
The functional unit is >10,000 simultaneously activated neurons
How does eye movement affect EEG. How do we prevent it?
- Eye = Dipole
- Signals from eye contimates EEG signal to large degree
- Record eye signal by placing electrodes next to and under the eye to capture horizontal and vertical eye movements
- Remove by excluding contaminated trials, or mathematical algorithms, such as ICA
How does an ERP look like? What is P and N
Positivity is downwards.
Negativity is upwards.
What are ways of reading ERP
- Peak-amplitude
- 70% of studies
- Area-under-the-curve
- 20% of studies
- Peak-to-peak
- 10% of studies
- Onset of component
- Ambiguous
No clear rule. Results will differ across methods
Woodman and Luck (1999): What is the signal they used and what did it index.
- N2pc as an index of attention.
- Attending left = Stronger N2pc right hemsphiere
- N2pc = 2nd Negative Posterior Contralateral
Woodman and Luck (1999): Study Aims, Overview and Hypothesis
Aims
Parallel / Serial
Visual Search Task
Search a coloured square
Hypothesis
Serial: Attention switch (N2pc) from one hemifield to the other, until the target is found .
Parallel: No N2pc Switch
Woodman and Luck (1999): Study Methods. How did they get the participant to attend to one hemifield first?
- Manipulated probability specific colour was target (C75 and C25) to get people to attend to one hemifield
- Particiapnts attend to C75 and can monitor attention while particiapants visually scanned
Woodman and Luck (1999): Study Results and Conclusion
Target Absent
a) When C75 and C25 (same field), no shift in N2pc
b) When C75 and C25 (contralteral), shift in N2pc
Target Present
a) When C75 target and C25 (contralateral), no shift inN2pc
b) When C75 and C25 target (contralteral), shift in N2pc
Conclusion: People search in serial
note looking at crossover of N2pc
Gehring et al. (1993): Study Methods. What was manipulated? And what is the hypothesis?
Method Flanker-task (Middle Letter)
3 Conditions
- Emphaise Accuracy
- Emphaise Speed
- Control
H1.) Incongruent displays should lead to more errors
H2.) Error detection should only matter in the accuracy condition
Gehring et al. (1993): First Hypothesis supported?
Yes. ERN on incorrect trial in comparison to correct trials
Gehring et al., 1993: Second Hypothesis supported? What else were they interested in finding out?
Yes. The ERN was strongest when people emphasised accuracy, and weakest for speed
But is the ERN indicative for compensating for errors?
- If this were true, one would expect that the ERN should also reflect the attempt to break the error
Gehring et al., 1993: Further study of ERN compensation for errors (reflective of breaking the error): Method
Investigated how ERNs of different sizes were related to response parameters (might be involved in error correction)
- Divided into quartiles from small to XL
Gehring et al., 1993: Further study of ERN compensation results
As ERN increases,
- Lowe Response Force
- Error correction
- Higher Probability of right the next trial
- Learning
- Slower response on next trial
- Post-error slowing
- Learning
