Gilad, O.; (2008) Preliminary studies in imaging neuronal depolarization in the brain with electrical or magnetic detection impedance tomography. Doctoral thesis , University of London.

PDF U591481.pdf Download (86MB)

Abstract

Electrical impedance Tomography (EIT) is a novel medical imaging method which has the potential to provide the revolutionary advance of a method to image fast neural activity non-invasively. by imaging electrical impedance changes over milliseconds which occur when neuronal ion channels open during activity. These changes have been estimated to be c.1% locally in cerebral cortex, if measured with applied current below 100Hz. The purpose of this work was to determine if such changes could be reproducibly recorded in humans non invasive First, a novel recessed electrode was designed and tested to determine to enable a maximal current of 1mA to be applied to the scalp without causing painful skin sensation. Modelling indicated that this produced a peak current density of 0.3A/m2 in underlying cortex, which was below the threshold for stimulation. Next, the signal-to-noise ratio of impedance changes during evoked visual activity was investigated in healthy volunteers with current injected with scalp electrodes and recording of potential by scalp electrodes (Low Frequency EIT) or magnetic field by magnetoencephalography (Magnetic Detection EIT). Numerical FEM simulations predicted that resistivity changes of 1% in the primary7 visual cortex translate into scalp voltage changes of IjiV (0.004%) and external magnetic field changes of 30fT (0.2%) and were independently validated in saline filled tanks. In vivo, similar changes with a signal-to-noise ratio of 3 after averaging for 10 minutes were recorded for both methods the main noise sources were background brain activity and the current source. These studies with non-invasive scalp recording have, for the first time, demonstrated the existence of such changes when measured non-invasively. These are unfortunately too low to enable reliable imaging within a realistic recording time but support the view that such imaging could be possible in animal or human epileptic studies with electrodes placed on the brain or non-invasively following technological improvements this further work is currently in progress.

Download activity - last month

Export as JSONXMLCSV

Download activity - last 12 months

Export as XMLJSONCSV

Downloads by country - last 12 months

Export as XMLJSONCSV

Archive Staff Only

View Item