Combined detection and source analysis of epileptic EEG spikes

Abstract

We present a method for the detection of focal epileptic spikes in the EEG (electroencephalogram). The method is based on the dipole source localisation technique and provides a source location estimate for each detected spike. In the first section of the paper, a theoretical introduction is given about dipole source localisation, followed by a description of the modifications that were made to it for a more efficient calculation. An additional decision variable is introduced to exploit the high amplitude of the spikes that are searched for, without however imposing constraints on the precise shape of the waveforms. In the next section the efficiency of the method is discussed on the basis of an experiment with an EEG measurement from an epilepsy patient. It is shown that the method is capable of detecting and localising most of the epileptic spikes present in the EEG, while producing only few false-positive detections.