Medical Instrumentation I

Other Biopotentials

Hasan Al-Nashash
Department of Electrical Engineering
College of Engineering
American University of Sharjah

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Major Divisions of the CNS

• Forebrain – Cerebrum, Diencephalon

• Brainstem
• Cerebellum
• Spinal Cord

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 Brain Function
• brainstem: stalk of brain, along which nerve fibers
send information between spinal chord and higher
brain structures.
• thalamus: relay station, integrates sensory
information before it is sent to cortex (with the
exception of smell).
• cerebellum: fine muscle movement control.
• white matter: contains fibers which interconnect
thalamus and cortex (mostly myelinated axons, 1
cm3 volume may contain 107 fibers).
• grey matter (cortex): 2-3 mm thick, total surface area
of 1600 cm2, contains about 1010 neurons. Each
neuron has about 103 to 105 synapses. Cortex is
responsible for our conscious experience. 9
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Electroencephalography (EEG)

EEG is the recording of the electrical activity of the

brain as measured on the scalp with electrodes. 11
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 Characteristics of the EEG

The frequency contents of the EEG varies with alertness and
mental activity.

300µV
Bandwidth: 0.5 – 30 HZ and Amplitude: 5 – 300µ

(δ) waves: 0.5 – 4Hz - during deep sleep, young
Delta (δ
children and brain diseases.

(θ) waves: 4- 8 Hz - Associated with emotional stress.
Theta (θ

Alpha (α(α) waves: 8-13 Hz - Normal, a wake, quiet person.

(β) waves: 13
Beta (β 13--22 Hz - Associated with intense mental
activity.

Gamma (γ (γ) waves: 22
22--30 Hz Associated with attention
and sensory stimulus.

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 Clinical Uses

Study sleep patterns

Epilepsy diagnosis.

Used with EMG to study neuromuscular
pathologies.

Determine level of anesthesia

Help in locating tumors.

Brain response to stimulus.

Detect and monitor brain injury
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EEG Block diagram

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 Electrodes System
• Electrodes transfer ionic currents from cerebral tissues into
electrical signal used by electronic amplifiers.
• The most common electrode placement system is the 10-20
system. The head is mapped by 4 points:
• (1) Nasion, (2) Inions, (3) Left ear and (4) Right ear.
• The spacing between (1) and (2), (3) and (4) are divided are
intervals if 10 and 20%.
• The head is mapped using 7 standard letters. These letters are:
• O for Occipital P for Parietal
• C for Central F for Frontal
• FP for frontal pole T for Temporal
• A for Auricular

• 19 electrodes are used.

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Electrodes System

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Electrodes System

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 Electrodes System
• Unipolar arrangement: a number of scalp leads (-ve) are
connected to a common point (ear lobe)

• Bipolar arrangement: inter connection between various

combination of electrodes.

• Montage is a combination of electrodes, which is assigned

to each channel. An example is shown below:
Chann 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
el
Lead 1 FP1 F7 T3 T5 FP3 F8 T4 T6

Lead 2 F7 T3 T5 O1 F8 T4 T6 O2

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Generalised epilepsy EEG

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Signal Averaging
• Apply M stimuli, and record
resulting M responses.
• Align M responses to form
an ensemble with each
response EP aligned in
time.
• Average across all
responses in the ensemble
to get the EP estimate
M
1
xavg =
M
∑ xi
1

SNRavg = M SNRnot avg

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Evoked Potentials

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Brainstem Auditory Evoked Potential
(BAEP)

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Somatosensory Evoked Potential
(SEP)

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 Electromyography (EMG)
• It is an important instrument, which measures the
electrical activity of muscles. Signals are obtained
using needle or surface electrodes.
• Clinical Uses include Diagnosis of neuromuscular
disorders, Measure of relaxation, An indication of
muscle activity, and Detection of muscular dystrophy.
• Amplitude: 1µ - 10mV
• Bandwidth: 10 – 1KHz for surface and 10 – 5KHz for
needle measurements. The EMG signal looks like
random signals.
• Signals can be taken to a speaker , where a
neurologist will listen to the EMG .
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 EMG Gait Signal
0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

-0.1

-0.2

-0.3
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
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Electroretinogram (ERG)
• Amplitude: 0 – 1mV
• Bandwidth: DC – 50Hz.
• An active electrode on the
cornea, with saline solution
bridging the gap between
the electrode and the
cornea, and placing a
reference electrode to the
earlobe. The retina is
stimulated with light. A
differential voltage is
amplified and recorded and
signal averaging is used.
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 Other Potentials
• Electrooculogram (EOG): Amplitude: 50–3500µv. Bandwidth: dc
- 50 Hz. EOG is recorded to reflect the eye – position. Surface
electrodes are used at the left and right sides of the eye (nose,
temple). The EOG is used to record eye movements during
sleep and dream.
• The Electrogastrogram (EGG): Amplitude up to 500 mv.
Bandwidth 0.016 - 5 Hz. 3 cycles/min. EGG represent the
electrical activity of the gut.
• Fetal Electrocardiography (FECG): µv signal corrupted by
maternal ECG and random muscular noise. Various techniques
have been used (Simple substructure, Adaptive noise canceling,
Autocorrelation). Still under research.
• His-Bundle Electrocardiogram (HBE): the electrical activity of
the bundle of His of the specialized conduct-system of the heat.
Intensive techniques are used to detect and locate these signals
on body surface. 30