Electroencephalograms (EEGs)

• Outline

  • Measures electrical activity in the brain via electrodes placed on the scalp
  • Scan recording represents brainwave patterns generated from actions of neurons
  • Often used as a diagnostic tool, as irregular patterns of activity can indicate neurological abnormalities, e.g. epilepsy, tumors, sleep disorders
• Strengths

  • Useful in the diagnosis of neurological disorders and in developing our understanding of sleep
  • Extremely high temporal resolution (can detect activity in under one milisecond)
  • Lower cost than other methods (such as fMRIs)
• Limitations

  • As information is generalised from many thousands of neurons, the signal from an individual neuron is not strong enough to detect, so only indicates an area where many neurons are firing
  • It does not allow researchers to differentiate when different but adjacent areas are firing
  • A level of expertise is needed to interpret output from the equipment