Electroencephalography (EEG) records electrical activity along the scalp, measuring spontaneous electrical activity of the brain. The signals measured along the scalp can be correlated with brain activity, which makes it a primary tool for diagnosis of brain-related illnesses. EEG specialists review these waveforms and develop a diagnosis. EEGs traditionally have been used to diagnose epilepsy and strokes. Other common clinical uses have been for diagnoses of coma, encephalopathies, brain death and sleep disorders. EEGs are increasingly being used to diagnose head-related trauma injuries and Alzheimer’s disease. Hence, there is a growing need for expertise to interpret EEGs and, equally important, to understand how these conditions manifest themselves in the EEG signal. In this course we will discuss the techniques neurologists use to manually interpret EEGs. A vast archive of clinical EEG recordings will be studied. Since EEG signals are very low-level electrical signals, we will then discuss digital signal processing that is used to convert the raw electrical signals to into visualizations that can be readily interpreted. We will also introduce machine learning techniques that are used automatically interpret and transcribe these signals.
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