Imaging of brain electric field networks with spatially resolved EEG

• Published in: eLife Vol. 13
• Main Authors: Frank, Lawrence R, Galinsky, Vitaly L, Krigolson, Olave, Tapert, Susan, Bickel, Stephan, Martinez, Antigona
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England eLife Sciences Publications Ltd 05.06.2025; eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
• Subjects: Adult; Approximation; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain - physiology; Brain Mapping - methods; brain waves; EEG; Electric fields; Electroencephalography; Electroencephalography - methods; Epilepsy; Epilepsy - physiopathology; Female; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Humans; Inverse problems; Magnetic fields; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Male; Neuroimaging; Neuroscience; Physics of Living Systems; Propagation; Spatial discrimination; SPECTRE; Tissues; electroencephalography; entropy field decomposition; fMRI; EFD; EEG; neuroscience; SPECTRE; brain waves; human; physics of living systems; functional magnetic resonance imaging; neuroimaging
• ISSN: 2050-084X; 2050-084X
• DOI: 10.7554/eLife.100123

We present a method for spatially resolving the electric field potential throughout the entire volume of the human brain from electroencephalography (EEG) data. The method is not a variation of the well-known ‘source reconstruction’ methods, but rather a direct solution to the EEG inverse problem based on our recently developed model for brain waves that demonstrates the inadequacy of the standard ‘quasi-static approximation’ that has fostered the belief that such a reconstruction is not physically possible. The method retains the high temporal/frequency resolution of EEG, yet has spatial resolution comparable to (or better than) functional MRI (fMRI), without its significant inherent limitations. The method is validated using simultaneous EEG/fMRI data in healthy subjects, intracranial EEG data in epilepsy patients, comparison with numerical simulations, and a direct comparison with standard state-of-the-art EEG analysis in a well-established attention paradigm. The method is then demonstrated on a very large cohort of subjects performing a standard gambling task designed to activate the brain’s ‘reward circuit’. The technique uses the output from standard extant EEG systems and thus has potential for immediate benefit to a broad range of important basic scientific and clinical questions concerning brain electrical activity. By offering an inexpensive and portable alternative to fMRI, it provides a realistic methodology to efficiently promote the democratization of medicine.