FEM method for the EEG forward problem and improvement based on modification of the Saint Venant’s method

Abstract

The finite-element method (FEM) is applied to solve the EEG forward problem. Two issues related to the implementation of this method are investigated. The first is the singularity due to the punctual dipole sources and the second is the numerical errors observed near the interface of different tissues. To deal with the singularity of the punctual dipole sources, three source modeling methods, namely, the direct, the subtraction and the Saint Venant’s methods, are examined. To solve the problem of numerical instability near the interface of different tissues, a modification on the Saint Venant’s method is introduced. The numerical results are compared with analytical solution in the case of the multilayer spherical head models. The advantages of the proposed method are highlighted.