On the geometrical perturbation of a three‐shell spherical model in electroencephalography

Abstract

The forward electroencephalography (EEG) problem is studied in the framework of a multilayered structure, which models the scalp, skull, cerebrospinal fluid, and brain. Both the exterior and all inner boundaries are perturbed spheres so that special localized defects in head‐brain imaging are considered in analytic fashion. Linear perturbation analysis is implemented, providing exact expression for the first significant term of the forward EEG solution of the perturbed problem. Comparison with the solution of the corresponding unperturbed spherical problem is included, together with numerical demonstration of the produced errors in special deformation cases. The results suggest that significant errors are caused when large inaccuracies in the head‐brain structure in the vicinity of EEG source are not taken into account. Moreover, the suggested procedure provides a mathematical tool for evaluating quantitatively the impact of special deformations in the head representation on the EEG forward analytic solution.