Case Studies

EEGNet is an initiative that facilitates national and international collaborative EEG-based neuroscience research. At the core of EEGNet is the development of a scalable neuroinformatics hub for data sharing and analytics for the investigation of biomarkers of brain disorders. EEGNet brings scientists and technical experts together in a centralized platform to combine standardized annotated EEG data and analytics for global health applications, by harmonizing data formats and computational tools used across the Canadian scientific community.

This project is a multi-national EEG normative initiative for creating international standards for MEEG analysis, under the focus of the Global Brain Consortium (GBC). The initiative is led by Dr. Pedro Valdes-Sosa, at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) and it joins several scientists all around the world.

Goals

Creating Signatures to describe EEG activity

• Create “qEEG signature” descriptors of EEG spectra maturation for a narrow frequency range across ages in large populations, examining factors such as ethnicity, culture, sex and other socio-economical indices.
• Developing methodologies for data harmonization across cohorts

Data Standardization and Quality Control

• Validating and standardizing EEG preprocessing toolboxes for clean-EEG selection (e.g., artifact rejection).
• Data harmonization for conjoint use of EEG recordings gathered with different devices, technical conditions, and countries.
• Creating Quality Control mechanisms for accessing data quality and validity, as well as automatic preprocessing algorithms performance.
• Development of methods for automatic detection of outliers, to assess signal quality.
• Multivariate measurements for the comparison of different EEG cohorts.

Novel Normative Methodologies

• Metrics for assessing deviations from normality.
• Multivariate methodologies to calculate normative regressions for MEEG data, and to create normative surfaces, rather than single variable norms.
• Methods for estimating the spectra at the MEEG sources, more appropriate for connectivity analysis.
• Calculation of normative parameters both at the scalp and the sources, in the whole frequency range, for different inverse estimators.

Scientific research has shown that a baby's auditory system, even before birth, is capable of responding to noises perceived in the mother's womb. Of all the senses, hearing is, fundamentally, the sensory experience that facilitates communication and promotes social interaction, and is an essential aspect of human emotional and cognitive development.