Technical Means for Clinical Investigations of Brain Bioelectrical Processes

Abstract

It is one of the most difficult methodological problems to investigate real activities and state mechanisms in the living human brain. The reasons arise not only from its complexity, but also from severe medico-ethical limitations. The technical means for such investigations can be effective only if they are adequate to meet the numerous demands which follow from the medical and physiological tasks, taking into consideration real clinical conditions. The demands are particularly severe when dealing with patients who are treated with intracerebral electrodes implanted for diagnosis and treatment in accordance with proper medical considerations. Taking diagnosis and treatment as the main and most important goals, one should use the opportunities available for ethically admissible researches in pathology and normal physiology of the human brain (Bechtereva, 1978; 1980; Bechtereva et al., 1969). The relative importance of concrete features is different, as a rule, for a clinical instrument compared to a general scientific instrument. Nevertheless, one can obtain an acceptable compromise trying to achieve both relative initial simplicity of the means and the possibilities of increasing their computing and controlling potential when proper knowledge and experience are acquired.