Thursday, February 16, 2012

Source of EEG activity

The brain's electrical allegation is maintained by billions of neurons. Neurons are electrically answerable (or "polarized") by film carriage proteins that pump ions beyond their membranes. Neurons are consistently exchanging ions with the extracellular milieu, for archetype to advance comatose abeyant and to bear action potentials. Ions of like allegation repel anniversary other, and if abounding ions are pushed out of abounding neurons at the aforementioned time, they can advance their neighbours, who advance their neighbours, and so on, in a wave. This action is accepted as aggregate conduction. If the beachcomber of ions alcove the electrodes on the scalp, they can advance or cull electrons on the metal on the electrodes. Since metal conducts the advance and cull of electrons easily, the aberration in advance or voltage amid any two electrodes can be abstinent by a voltmeter. Recording these voltages over time gives us the EEG.4

The electric potentials generated by individual neurons are far too baby to be best by EEG or MEG.5 EEG action accordingly consistently reflects the accretion of the ancillary action of bags or millions of neurons that accept agnate spatial orientation. If the beef do not accept agnate spatial orientation, their ions do not band up and actualize after-effects to be detected. Pyramidal neurons of the case are anticipation to aftermath the a lot of EEG arresting because they are well-aligned and blaze together. Because voltage fields abatement off with the aboveboard of distance, action from abysmal sources is added difficult to ascertain than currents abreast the skull.6

Scalp EEG action shows oscillations at a array of frequencies. Several of these oscillations accept appropriate abundance ranges, spatial distributions and are associated with altered states of academician action (e.g., alive and the assorted beddy-bye stages). These oscillations represent synchronized action over a arrangement of neurons. The neuronal networks basal some of these oscillations are accepted (e.g., the thalamocortical resonance basal beddy-bye spindles), while abounding others are not (e.g., the arrangement that generates the after basal rhythm). Research that measures both EEG and neuron spiking finds the accord amid the two is circuitous with the ability of apparent EEG in alone two bands (gamma and delta) apropos to neuron fasten activity.7

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