Advances in Physiology Education, Vol 263, Issue 6 16-S22, Copyright © 1992 by American Physiological Society
Electroencephalography and evoked potentials: a PC-based analysis program for laboratory courses in physiology
M. Illert, H. Wiese and U. Wolfram
Department of Physiology, Christian-Albrechts-Universitat zu Kiel, Germany.
A computer program (EEG Analysis) was developed for the preclinical
laboratory course in physiology held for medical and dental students. It
offers an off-line analysis of a set of typical and frequently occurring
physiological and pathological electroencephalogram (EEG) and evoked
potential (EP) recordings, which are stored in an IBM-compatible personal
computer (PC) system. The users are requested to measure and analyze the
data sets and to work through a base of questions relevant in the frame of
the particular topic. The program is structured in several exercises:
calibration, pickup of non-EEG signals (eye movements, chewing), waveforms
in EEG recordings from awake subjects (alpha-waves, beta-waves),
desynchronization of cerebral activity (visual activation, acoustic
activation, mental activation), habituation of cerebral activity upon
acoustic stimuli, EEG recordings from asleep subjects (different sleep
stages, sleep-specific EEG signals), epileptic seizures, and EPs (principle
of averaging, visually evoked potentials in different cortical areas). The
program runs under MS-DOS and is network capable. The software structure
ensures maximal flexibility for rapid changes and adaptations of the
program to specific needs of a particular EEG course. The program has been
used for three years, and the response from > 800 students has been
consistently positive.
