Measuring Brain Activity With Wearable EEGs Unlocks New Applications

EEG (Electroencephalography) is a powerful method to analyse brain activity in real time. The improvements in sensor technologies combined with connectivity and advances in miniaturisation enable us to build highly sensitive portable devices. They can simply be worn like a hat - without the need to tether peoples heads with doszens of cables.

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How much should we know on how a human brain works? :brain:

This is a tricky question. Instead of getting lost in endless discussions, let’s dive into how wearable technology can make a difference in aggregating real life data about the activity of the brain.

How is brain activity measured?

Electrical Brain activity is accumuluated via EEG – meaning Electroencephalography :thinking: yeah, what a tongue twister! In the essence one can measure electrical activity generated by the synchronized activity of thousands of neurons in volts. Because these signals are transmitted with near to no latency, EEG provides excellent time resolution.

By applying multiple electrodes distributed over the skull, a 3D image of the brain activity can be computed. See illustration 1-5 in the below image to get from raw data aggregation with electrodes to mapping the activities to certain regions in the brain.

This makes EEG one of the fastest and smallest imaging techniques available!

 

Image credits and sources: (1) https://www.neuroelectrics.com/img/product/Enobio32.webp (2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:21_electrodes_of_International_10-20_system_for_EEG.svg (3) https://www.cs.colostate.edu/eeg/data/json/doc/tutorial/_build/html/_images/eegplot2.png (4) https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Volume-conduction-complicates-the-interpretation-of-connectivity-patterns-estimated-from_fig2_230834117 (5) https://askabiologist.asu.edu/sites/default/files/resources/articles/nervous_journey/brain-regions-areas.gif

What is the potential of a wearable EEG?
Measureing brain activity in the lab is cool, but measuring EEG continuously in real life is what provides the far more valuable insights. As wearable device experts, Leitwert is proud to support companies and researchers in designing EEG-Wearable device that are used for sleep analysis and other purposes.

Besides Sleep Analysis and brain research applications, there are lots of medical applications, where EEG can be used. These include:

  • Epilepsy (most common)

  • Dementia

  • Brain tumor

  • Brain damage from head injury

  • Brain dysfunction that can have a variety of causes (encephalopathy)

  • Inflammation of the brain (encephalitis)

  • Stroke

  • Sleep disorders

Want to know more?
Follow these interesting links below
https://imotions.com/blog/what-is-eeg/
https://sleeploop.ch/de/home
https://www.epi.ch/wp-content/uploads/Artikel-Achermann_1-09.pdf

Our offering

On one hand, Leitwert provides software and consulting for organisations which develop wearable EEGs like device manufacturers and sensor manufacturers. Learn more!

On the other hand, we support organisations who use wearable EEG sensors for clinical trials and digital health use cases. Having challenges to deploy EEG devices in a stationary or remote setting? We have the tools and the experience to help you succeed! Check it out!

Are you working on an EEG use-case you would like to go wearable with?

Simply reach out to us – We are eager to discuss your use-case for wearable EEG and would be happy to identify a mutually beneficial mode of collaboration.

Connect with us to stay connected with your devices and build the experience your users and lients are longing for: seamless from device to data.

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