EEG and Localisation of Function in the Brain

Abstract

Ever since Caton’s experiments in the 1870s, it has been one of the preoccupations of encephalographers to identify localised brain functions. Adrian and Yamigawa’s rather macabre experiment (described in Chapter 1) on the dipole placed in a corpse showed that fairly precise triangulation of localised electrical activity deep in the brain is possible from electrodes on the scalp. The clinical application of EEG, of course, quite routinely depends on this in the localisation of foreign bodies, tumours and epileptic foci. In the modern experimental context, the object of identifying correlates of localised functions must be to make EEG evidence available in the analysis of normal functioning. As with event-related potentials, the mere correlation of EEG phenomena with known brain functions is uninteresting in itself, but is an essential first step towards realising this ambition.