Project description
New contrast medium for high-resolution, non-invasive brain electroencephalography
Electroencephalography (EEG) is one of the principal functional brain-imaging techniques used in brain-related scientific and medical applications. During non-invasive neuroimaging EEG, the neuron-induced electric potentials are measured using electrodes on the patient’s scalp. However, the skull shields EEG recordings, limiting spatial resolution. Alternative and significantly more accurate EEG techniques require skull trepanation and implantation of electrodes under the skull, while imaging only a limited part of the brain. The EU-funded CEREBRO project aims to develop the first EEG contrast medium to allow non-invasive entire-brain imaging.
Objective
Imaging the brain activity is fundamentally important for many brain-related scientific disciplines. Among the non-invasive neuroimaging strategies, Electroencephalography (EEG) from scalp potentials is one of the primary. In EEG the neuroninduced electric potential is measured by using electrodes on the patient’s scalp. The skull however, highly resistive, shields EEG recordings limiting the spatial resolution. The standard way to avoid skull shielding effects is to invasively implant EEG electrodes under the skull (ECoG) or in the brain cortex (StereoEEG), in both cases after trepanning the patient’s skull. Scalp EEGs are noninvasive but lack spatial imaging accuracy. ECoG and StereoEEG are highly accurate but require skull trepanation and they image only a limited part of the brain. There is the need for increasing the resolution of scalp EEG providing the same level of accuracy of invasive EEGs. This will be the grand challenge which CEREBRO will achieve by conceiving the first ever existing EEG contrast medium, able to provide imaging of the entire brain and in a non-invasive way.
Programme(s)
Call for proposal
(opens in new window) HORIZON-EIC-2021-PATHFINDEROPEN-01
See other projects for this callFunding Scheme
HORIZON-EIC - HORIZON EIC GrantsCoordinator
10129 Torino
Italy