Electrophysiological Neuroimaging

Abstract

Although electrical activity recorded from the exposed cerebral cortex of a monkey was reported in 1875 (Caton, 1875), it was not until 1929 that Hans Berger, a psychiatrist in Jena, Germany, first recorded rhythmic electrical activity from the human head (Berger, 1929). Since then, the electroencephalogram (EEG) has become one of the most prominent methods for noninvasive examination of brain activity. Tremendous effort has been made in order to describe the phenomena of the EEG in normal individuals and in those with various diseases. In particular, the EEG has been demonstrated to be a valuable tool for both researchers and clinicians in the fields of sleep physiology and epilepsy, although other applications are also promising, such as in the fields of psychiatry and psychophysiology.