Brain electricaL activity mapping

• US 4,408,616 A
• Filed: 05/15/1981
• Issued: 10/11/1983
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/1981
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Children's Medical Center Corporation
• Original Assignee: Children's Medical Center Corporation
• Inventors: Culver, Norman D., Duffy, Frank H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cohen, Lee S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sykes, Angela D.
• Application Number:
  US06/264,043
• Time in Patent Office: 879 Days
• Field of Search: 128/731-733, 128/905
• US Class Current: 600/544
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/377 using evoked responses
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4088 Diagnosing of monitoring cognitive diseases, e.g. Alzheimer, prion diseases or dementia
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4094 Diagnosing or monitoring seizure diseases, e.g. epilepsy
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7203 for noise prevention, reduction or removal
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7257 using Fourier transforms

Abstract

Topographic displays of brain electrical activity are produced from matrices of data derived from evoked potential (EP) and steady-state responses of skull transducers. In different aspects, EP responses are displayed at a variable frame rate, the rate of data sampling is sufficient to capture rapid transient events, difference matrices are derived as the difference between matrices corresponding to two different brain conditions, the baseline of the EP responses is zeroed based on the average prestimulus response, and the steady-state response is analyzed by Fourier transforms. In other aspects, statistical comparison matrices representing statistical differences between corresponding elements in two matrices are generated, a coefficient-of-variance matrix is generated, additional display matrices are temporally interpolated, response waveforms are previewed and tagged for elimination from further processing, the topographic maps are displayed on a video monitor with appropriate scaling of the data to the tones of the display, and additional display points are interpolated between the measured data points for display.

Claims

1. Apparatus for generating a topographic display of information on the electrical activity of the brain, said apparatus comprising

a plurality of electrical-activity transducers adapted to be placed at spaced apart locations on the skull of a patient,

stimulus means for repeatedly providing a sensory stimulus for activating the brain to produce EP responses to said transducers,

response averaging means connected to be responsive to said transducers, to produce average responses for each transducer,

processing means connected to be responsive to said averaging means for processing said average responses to generate a time sequence of matrices,

display means connected to be responsive to said processing means, for displaying said matrices as a time sequence of topographic maps of the skull, said matrice having elements defining discrete points of said maps,

said display means including means for displaying said topographic maps at a variable frame rate, said maps corresponding to different portions of said average responses being displayed respectively at different selected frame rates.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said display means includes means for displaying maps corresponding to initial portions of said average responses at a slower rate than maps corresponding to later portions of said average responses.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said display means includes means to display said topographic maps at a frame rate that varies logarithmically.

65. The apparatus of claim 1, 4, 6, 8, 22, 45, 46, 47, 48, 51, or 59 wherein said processing means includes interpolation means for generating by interpolation additional matrix elements for skull locations intermediate the locations of said transducers.

66. The apparatus of claim 65 wherein said interpolation means includes means for computing the values of said additional matrix elements by three point interpolation from the values associated with the three closest transducer locations.

67. The apparatus of claim 66 wherein said three point interpolation is linear.

68. The apparatus of claim 1, 4, 6, 8, 22, 36, 45, 46, 47, 48, 51, or 59 wherein the number of said electrical-activity transducers is in the range of 10 to 200 and the number of elements in said topographic maps is at least 5 times the number of transducers.

4. Apparatus for generating a topographic display of information on the electrical activity of the brain, said apparatus including

a plurality of electrical-activity transducers adapted to be placed at spaced apart locations on the skull,

processing means connected to be responsive to said transducers, for processing responses of said transducers to generate a time sequence of matrices, each of said matrices having elements representing the instantaneous amplitudes of said responses at various locations on the skull and there being a sufficient number of said matrices for a selected time period of actual brain activity for capturing onset of a transient event that occurs with a rapidity on the order of that of an epileptic spike,

said processing means including means to generate from said time sequence of matrices a running-average matrix which at any given time represents the current matrix averaged with a selected number of the matrices preceding it in time,

display means connected to be responsive to said processing means, for displaying said matrices as a time sequence of topographic maps of the skull, said elements defining discrete points of said matrice having maps,

said display means including means for displaying said topographic maps at a variable frame rate and for selectably slowing said frame rate to permit observation of said transient event.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein said processing means includes means for generating 200 or more matrices for each second of real time.

6. Apparatus for generating a topographic display of information on the electrical activity of the brain, said apparatus comprising

a plurality of electrical-activity transducers adapted to be placed at spaced apart locations on the skull of a patient,

storage means connected to be responsive to said transducers for storing responses of said transducers during first and second time periods,

processing means connected to be responsive to said transducers, for processing said responses to generate first and second matrices each having elements representing brain activity at different skull locations, said first matrix representing information on brain activity during said first period, and said second matrix representing information on brain activity during said second period,

different means connected to be responsive to said processing means, for forming a difference matrix having elements each corresponding to the difference between corresponding elements of said first and second matrices,

display means connected to be responsive to said different means, for displaying said different matrix as a topographic map of the skull, said matrix elements each forming a discrete point of said topographic map.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 further comprising stimulus means for providing a sensory stimulus to generate an EP response and wherein at least one of said first and second periods of time are during said EP response.

8. Apparatus for generating a topographic display of information on the electrical activity of the brain, said apparatus comprising

a plurality of electrical-activity transducers adapted to be placed at spaced apart locations on the skull of a patient,

stimulus means for repeatedly generating a sensory stimulus for the brain, to produce at said transducers repeated segments of data, each said segment having a pre-stimulus response and a post-stimulus response,

response averaging means connected to be responsive to said transducers, for averaging said segments to produce average pre-stimulus and average post-stimulus responses for each transducer,

baseline means connected to be responsive to said responsive averaging means, for determining a zero baseline for said average segments from the mean level of at least a portion of the respective average pre-stimulus response, and

subtraction means connected to be responsive to said baseline means, for generating zeroed average segments by subtracting from each average segment the zero baseline determined by said baseline means,

processing means connected to be responsive to said subtraction means, for processing said zeroed average segments to generate one or more matrices, each said matrix having element representing information on the electrical activity of the brain at one location on the skull,

display means connected to be responsive to said processing means, for displaying said one or more matrices as topographic maps of the skull, said matrix elements forming discrete points of said maps.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 further comprising

means connected to be responsive to said stimulus means, for storing the time of occurrence of each said stimulus and

means connected to be responsive to said means for storing, for dividing each said segment into a predetermined pre-stimulus subinterval during which the pre-stimulus response occurs and a predetermined post-stimulus subinterval during which the post-stimulus response occurs, by using said stored times of stimuli occurrence as an indication of the boundary between said subintervals.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein said processing means includes means to generate from said zeroed average segments a time sequence of said matrices, the display elements of each matrix representing the instantaneous amplitude of an EP response at various locations on said skull, and

said display means includes means for displaying said matrices in sequence, to thereby display said EP response as a time-varying topographic map.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein said processing means includes means to generate said sequence of matrices in an endless loop, to thereby produce a cyclical display of said EP response.

12. The apparatus of claim 8 further comprising sampling means connected to be responsive to said transducers, for sampling and storing as a sequence of digital words said segments, and wherein said response averaging, baseline, and subtraction means all include means for performing the respective functions digitally.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein said response averaging means includes

a summing buffer connected to be responsive to said sampling means, and having locations for storing each said sampled digital word for each transducer and

means connected to be responsive to said sampling means, for adding to said buffer locations new digital words corresponding to each new segment, to thereby generate said average pre- and post-stimulus responses.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein said sampling means includes means for taking from 20 to 2000 equally-spaced-in-time samples of said pre-stimulus response and for taking 20 to 2000 equally-spaced-in time samples of said post-stimulus response.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 further comprising means connected to be responsive to said sampling means, for comparing said new digital words to predetermined limits and rejecting digital words falling outside said limits, thereby not adding said words to said buffer locations.

16. The apparatus of claim 12 further comprising means connected to be responsive to said transducers, for filtering high-frequency components from the post-stimulus response for any selected transducer by multipoint interpolation of the digital words for the selected response.

17. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein said baseline means includes means for selectively eliminating from the mean level computation portions of an average pre-stimulus response for a selected transducer, to thereby provide a more accurate baseline for the response of the selected transducer.

18. The apparatus of claim 8 further comprising means connected to be responsive to said baseline means, for displaying said pre-stimulus and post-stimulus responses and said baseline for a selected transducer, to permit an operator to evaluate the appropriateness of said baseline.

19. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein

said baseline means includes means for calculating the root mean square average value of the average pre-stimulus response and of the average post-stimulus response and

said display means includes means for displaying said root mean square average values along with said responses,

whereby such root mean square value can be used in connection with said displayed responses to evaluate whether the noise level in the responses for any particular transducer is unacceptably large and for thereby determining whether new data should be taken.

20. The apparatus of claim 8 or 19 further comprising means connected to be responsive to said baseline means, for an operator to adjust the baseline value up or down for any selected transducer average response.

21. The apparatus of claim 8, 18, or 20 further comprising means connected to be responsive to said baseline means, for repeating the steps of calculating said baseline and viewing said responses for selected transducers, whereby adjustments can be made to said baseline until said responses are satisfactory.

22. Apparatus for generating a topographic display of information on the electrical activity of the brain, said apparatus comprising

a plurality of electrical-activity transducers adapted to be placed at spaced apart locations on the skull of a patient or measure the EEG response at said locations,

sampling means connected to be responsive to said transducers, for sampling said EEG responses during time intervals shorter than the anticipated interval between interruptions in the state of brain activity,

spectral processing means connected to be responsive to said sampling means, for computing, for each of said transducers, the Fourier transforms of the sampled EEG responses and for computing from said Fourier transforms, for each of said transducers, the spectral energy contained in selected frequency bands,

processing means connected to be responsive to said spectral processing means, for processing the output of said spectral processing means to generate a plurality of matrices, one said matrix for each selected frequency band, each said matrix having elements each of which represents the spectral energy within the respective frequency band at one location on the skull,

display means connected to be responsive to said processing means, for displaying said matrices as topographic maps of the skull, said matrix elements forming discrete points of said maps.

23. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein said sampling means is arranged for sampling and storing as a sequence of digital words selected portions of said EEG responses, and wherein said spectral processing means includes means for digitally performing said Fourier transform determination.

24. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein said sampling means includes means to sample said EEG responses at at least 3 times the highest frequency in said selected frequency bands.

25. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein said sampling means includes means to sample said EEG responses at from 4 to 5 times said highest frequency.

26. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein said sampling means includes marking means for storing the start and stop times of a particular brain activity.

27. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein a time maximum interval for sampling said EEG responses is on the order of two seconds.

28. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein said sampling time interval of said EEG responses is from 0.1 to 4.0 seconds long.

29. The apparatus of claim 22 further comprising averaging means connected to be responsive to said spectral processing means, for averaging said Fourier transforms to generate, for each transducer, the average spectral energy contained within said frequency bands.

30. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein said frequency bands comprise the alpha, beta, delta, and theta bands.

31. The apparatus of claim 22 further comprising filtering means connected to be responsive to said transducers, for removing from said EEG responses frequency components outside the prominent frequency bands of brain electrical activity.

32. The apparatus of claim 31 wherein said filtering means includes means for removing from said EEG responses at least frequency components below 0.5 Hz and above 50 Hz.

33. The apparatus of claim 31 wherein said filtering means includes means for removing from said EEG responses at least frequency components below 0.5 Hz and above 1000 Hz.

34. The apparatus of claim 31 wherein said filtering means includes means for removing from said EEG responses at least frequency components below 300 Hz and above 5000 Hz.

35. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein said spectral processing means includes means for tapering the beginning and end portions of said responses prior to determination of the Fourier transform to reduce high frequency artifacts.

36. Apparatus for generating a topographic display of information of the electrical activity of the brain, said apparatus comprising

a plurality of electrical-activity transducers adapted to be placed at spaced apart locations on the skull of a patient,

processing means connected to be responsive to said transducers, for processing electrical responses measured at said transducers, said processing means including means for generating one or more matrices, each matrix containing a plurality of elements, said elements representing information on the electrical activity of the brain at particular skull locations,

statistical processing means connected to be responsive to said processing means, for processing at least two said matrices to generate a statistical comparison matrix having elements, each element being representative of a statistical difference between the corresponding elements in said two matrices,

display means connected to be responsive to said statistical processing means, for displaying said statistical comparison matrix as a topographic map of the skull, said matrix element forming discrete points of said map.

37. The apparatus of claim 36 further comprising interpolation means connected to be responsive to said statistical processing means, for expanding said statistical comparison matrix to a larger matrix prior to display, and larger matrix having additional statistical comparison elements for skull locations intermediate said transducer locations, said additional elements being generated by interpolation from the elements of said statistical comparison matrix.

38. The apparatus of claim 36 further comprising interpolation means connected to be responsive to said processing means, for expanding said matrices to larger matrices prior to said statistical processing, said larger matrices having additional elements for skull locations intermediate said transducer locations, said additional elements being generated by interpolation from the elements of said matrices.

39. The apparatus of claim 36 wherein said statistical processing means includes means to generate as said statistical comparison matrix a matrix of t values representing the statistical difference between a first and a second group of matrices, each group having matrices having a plurality of elements.

40. The apparatus of claim 39 wherein said statistical processing means includes

means connected to be responsive to said means to generate a matrix of t values, for generating a first mean-value matrix having elements which are representative of the mean values of the respective elements the matrices said first group,

means connected to be responsive to said means to generate a matrix of t values, for generating a first standard-deviation matrix having elements which are representative of the standard deviations of the respective elements of the matrices of said first group,

means connected to be responsive to said means to generate a matrix of t values, for generating a second mean-value matrix having elements which are representative of the mean values of the respective elements of the matrices of said second group,

means connected to be responsive to said means to generate a matrix of t values, for generating a second standard-deviation matrix having elements which are representative of the standard deviations of the respective elements of the matrices of said second group,

means connected to be responsive to said means to generate a matrix of t values, for generating said matrix of t values from said first and second mean-value matrices and said first and second standard-deviation matrices.

41. The apparatus of claim 36 wherein said statistical processing means includes means to generate as said statistical comparison matrix a matrix of z values representing the statistical difference between one matrix and a group of matrices.

42. The apparatus of claim 41 wherein said statistical processing means includes

means connected said means to generate a matrix of z values, for generating a first matrix representative of the mean of said group of matrices,

means connected said means to generate a matrix of z values, for generating a second matrix representative of the standard deviation of said group of matrices,

said matrix of z values being generating from said one matrix and said first and second matrices, each of said matrices having a plurality of elements.

43. The apparatus of claim 42 wherein said first matrix is representative of the mean of a normalized reference population, said second matrix is representative of the standard deviation of said population, and the elements of said matrix of z values are thereby representative of the number of standard deviations by which the elements of said one matrix differ from the mean of said population.

44. The apparatus of claim 36 further comprising

means connected to be responsive to said statistical processing means, for producing from said statistical comparison matrix one or more quantitative features which are each determined by processing the elements within selected regions of said statistical matrix,

means connected to be responsive to said means for producing features, for determining a statistical merit value for selected features,

means for determining how to combine said features to form decision rules, and

means connected to be responsive to said means for determining, for classifying individuals using said decision rules.

45. Apparatus for generating a topographic display of information on the electrical activity of the brain, said apparatus comprising

a plurality of electrical-activity transducers adapted to be placed at spaced apart locations on the skull of a patient,

statistical processing means connected to be responsive to said transducers, for processing responses at said electrical-activity transducers to generate a coefficient-of-variance matrix, said matri having element each of which represents the normalized standard deviation of the responses at one skull location, the normalized standard deviation being the standard deviation divided by the mean,

display means connected to be responsive to said statistical processing means, for displaying said coefficient-of-variance matrix as a topographic map of the skull, thereby providing a map of the level of variation in brain activity.

46. Apparatus for generating a topographic display of information on the electrical activity of the brain, said apparatus comprising

a plurality of electrical-activity transducers adapted to be placed at spaced apart locations on the skull of a patient,

processing means connected to be responsive to said transducers, for generating from responses measured at said transducers a time sequence of first matrices, each said first matrices having display elements representing the instantaneous response at various locations on said skull,

temporal interpolation means connected to be responsive to said processing means, for generating by interpolation second matrices interspersed in said sequence of first matrices, said second matrices having elements representing the approximate response at instants of time intermediate the instants of time associated with said first matrices,

display means connected to be responsive to said processing means, for displaying said first matrices and said interspersed second matrices as a time sequence of topographic maps of the skull, said matrix elements forming discrete points of said maps, said second matrices enhancing the visual smoothness of the transitions over time between said first matrices.

47. Apparatus for generating a topographic display of information on the electrical activity of the brain, said apparatus comprising

a plurality of electrical-activity transducers adapted to be placed at spaced apart locations on the skull of a patient,

processing means connected to be responsive to said transducers, for generating one or more matrices from the responses measured at said transducers, each matrix having elements representing information on electrical activity of the brain at one location on the skull,

display means connected to be responsive to said processing means, for displaying said matrices as topographic maps of the skull, said matrix elements forming discrete points of said maps,

waveform quality control means for previewing said transducer responses or processed versions thereof, said quality control means including at least two of the following means

means for tagging a response with information on its waveform quality, including an indication of whether the response should be used in later processing,

means at the discretion of the operator for eliminating a response from further processing,

means for automatically eliminating a response from further processing if a portion thereof exceeds a predetermined threshold,

means for smoothing a response to eliminate undesired high frequency components,

means for adjusting a zero baseline of a response, said zero baseline having been previously set automatically,

means for eliminating selected portions of a response from further processing, and

means for displaying in numerical form the value of a response at a point in time selected by the operator.

48. Apparatus for generating a topographic display of information on the electrical activity of the brain, said apparatus comprising

a plurality of electrical-activity transducers adapted to be placed at spaced apart locations on the skull of a patient,

means connected to be responsive to said transducers, for sampling responses measured at said transducers and storing the sampled responses as a series of data matrices, one matrix for each sampling time,

means connected to be responsive to said means for sampling, for selectively viewing the sampled responses corresponding to a single transducer as a plot of transducer output versus time,

quality control means for adjusting portions of said selectively viewed responses or eliminating said responses from further processing,

processing means connected to be responsive to said means for sampling, for processing said data matrices to generate one or more processed matrices, said processed matrices having elements each corresponding to one transducer location,

interpolation means connected to be responsive to said processing means, for generating expanded matrices by expanding the number of elements in said processed matrices to provide elements corresponding to skull locations intermediate said transducer locations,

display means connected to be responsive to said interpolation means, including a video monitor capable of generating a matrix of grey tones for displaying said expanded matrices as topographic maps of the skull, said expanded matrices having elements defining the grey tones of discrete points on said maps.

49. The apparatus of claim 48 further comprising matrix storage means connected to be responsive to said means for sampling, processing means, and interpolation means, for tagging selected data, processed, or expanded matrices and storing them for later recall and processing.

50. The apparatus of claim 48 further comprising means connected to be responsive to said transducers, for storing calibration responses from said transducers and means for calibrating said responses matrices by determining from said stored calibration responses a DC offset and gain for each said transducer.

51. Apparatus for generating a topographic display of information on the electrical activity of the brain, said apparatus comprising

a plurality of electrical-activity transducers adapted to be placed at spaced apart locations on the skull of a patient,

processing means connected to be responsive to said transducers, for processing responses measured at said transducers to generate one or more matrices, each matrix having elements representing information on brain activity at different skull locations,

display means connected to be responsive to said processing means, for displaying said one or more matrices as topographic maps of the skull, said matrix elements forming discrete points of said maps, said display means including a video monitor which generates a visible grey tone at each said discrete point, said tone being variable from a maximum tone to a minimum tone, and

scaling means connected to be responsive to said processing means, for scaling said matrix elements to the available tones.

52. The apparatus of claim 51 wherein

said video monitor generates a zero tone intermediate said maximum and minimum tone and

said scaling means comprises at least two of the following means

means connected to be responsive to said processing means, for scaling the maximum matrix element to the maximum tone and the minimum matrix element to the minimum tone and linearly interpolating inbetween,

means connected to be responsive to said processing means, for scaling the maximum matrix element to the maximum tone and the minimum matrix element to the zero tone and linearly interpolating inbetween,

means connected to be responsive to said processing means, for scaling the maximum matrix element to an operator supplied tone,

means connected to be responsive to said processing means, for scaling the minimum matrix element to an operator supplied tone,

means connected to be responsive to said processing means, for excluding from the scaling operation selected unusually high or low valued matrix elements and for assigning to matrix elements that fall outside the available tone range the closer of the maximum or minimum tone.

53. The apparatus of claim 51 wherein said video monitor generates colored grey tones of a first and a second color, with grey tones of said first color forming said grey tones between said maximum tone and said zero tone, with grey tones of said second color forming said grey tones between said minimum tone and said zero tone, and with the absence of a color tone forming said zero tone.

54. The apparatus of claim 53 wherein said two colors are complementary colors.

55. The apparatus of claim 53 wherein there are at least 6 grey tones of each of said two colors.

56. The apparatus of claim 51 wherein there are a plurality of said matrices to be displayed and said scaling means includes means for independently performing said tone scaling for each matrix displayed.

57. The apparatus of claim 51 wherein there are a plurality of said matrices to be displayed and said scaling means includes means for scaling with respect to the display elements in all said matrices so that the scaling remains the same for each matrix displayed.

58. The apparatus of claim 51 further comprising preview means connected to be responsive to said transducers, for viewing selected segments of the transducer responses and for tagging selected segments for exclusion from the scaling operation and wherein said scaling means includes means for identifying the presence of said tagging and for excluding data so tagged from said scaling operation.

59. Apparatus for generating a topographic display of information on the electrical activity of the brain, said apparatus comprising

a plurality of electrical-activity transducers adapted to be placed at spaced apart locations on the skull of a patient,

processing means connected to be responsive to said transducers, for processing responses measured at said transducers to generate one or more matrices, each matrix having elements representing information on brain activity at different skull locations,

display means connected to be responsive to said processing means, for displaying said one or more matrices as a topographic map of the skull, said matrix elements forming discrete points of said map, said display means including a video monitor which generates a tone at each said discrete point, said tone varying from a maximum tone to a minimum tone,

normalizing means connected to be responsive to said processing means, for normalizing said matrix elements to a selected value, and

scaling means connected to be responsive to said processing means, for scaling said matrix elements to the available tones, said scaling means including means for assigning a selected tone to said selected normalization value.

60. The apparatus of claim 59 wherein said normalizing means includes means for normalizing said matrix elements to the matrix element representing brain electrical activity at the vertex.

61. The apparatus of claim 59 wherein said normalizing means includes means for normalizing each individual matrix element to the root mean square value of the background electrical activity at the skull location represented by the individual matrix element.

62. The apparatus of claim 59 wherein said normalizing means includes means for normalizing said matrix elements to the average root mean square value of the background electrical activity over all skull locations.

63. The apparatus of claim 59, 60, 61 or 62 further comprising

stimulus means for repeatedly providing a sensory stimulus for the brain, to produce repeated EP responses at said transducers,

response averaging means connected to be responsive to said transducers, for averaging said repeated responses for each transducer to produce an average response for each transducer, and

wherein said processing means includes means for generating from said average responses a time sequence of said matrices, and

said display means includes means for displaying said matrices in sequence.

64. The apparatus of claim 59 wherein

there is further provided spectral processing means connected to be responsive to said transducers, for computing the Fourier transforms of the responses measured by said electrical-activity transducers and for computing from said Fourier transforms the spectral energy contained in selected frequency bands,

said processing means includes means for processing the output of said spectral processing means to generate a plurality of matrices, one said matrix for each selected frequency band, each matrix having elements representing the spectral energy within the selected frequency band at various locations on the skull, and

said normalizing means includes means to normalize said matrix elements either to the total spectral energy for all said frequency bands at the skull location corresponding to said matrix element or to the average total spectral energy for all said frequency bands for all matrix elements.

69. A method for generating a topographic display of information on the electrical activity of the brain, said method comprising the steps of

placing a plurality of electrical-activity transducers at spaced apart locations on the skull of a patient,

storing responses of said transducers during first and second time periods,

processing said responses to generate first and second matrices each having elements representing brain activity at different skull locations, said first matrix representing information on brain activity during said first period, and said second matrix representing information on brain activity during said second period,

forming a difference matrix having elements each corresponding to the difference between corresponding elements of said first and second matrices, and

displaying said difference matrix as a topographic map of the skull, said matrix elements each forming a discrete point of said topographic map.

70. The method of claim 69 further comprising the step of providing as a stimulus for the brain during said first period a source of patterned light and providing as a stimulus for the brain during said second period a source of nonpatterned light.

71. A method of generating a topographic display of information on the EP response of the brain, said method comprising the steps of:

placing a plurality of electrical-activity transducers at spaced apart locations on the skull of a patient,

repeatedly providing a sensory stimulus for the brain so as to produce at said transducers repeated segments of data, each segment including a pre-stimulus response and a post-stimulus response,

averaging the repeated segments to produce an average segment for each transducer,

determining a zero baseline for each average segment from the mean level of at least a portion of the average pre-stimulus response,

subtracting the zero baselines from the respective average segments to produce zeroed average segments,

processing the zeroed average segments to generate one or more matrices of elements, with each matrix element representing information on the EP response at one location on the skull, and

displaying said one or more matrices as topographic maps of the skull, with each display point forming a discrete point on said maps.

72. A method for generating a topographic display of information on the electrical activity of the brain, said method comprising the steps of

placing a plurality of electrical-activity transducers at spaced apart locations on the skull of a patient,

repeatedly providing a sensory stimulus for activating the brain to produce EP responses at said transducers,

averaging said responses to produce average responses for each transducer,

processing said average responses to generate a time sequence of matrices,

displaying said matrices as a time sequence of topographic maps of the skull, said matrices having elements defining discrete points of said maps, and

displaying said topographic maps at a variable frame rate,

maps corresponding to different portions of said average responses being displayed respectively at different selected frame rates.

73. A method for generating a topographic display of information on the electrical activity of the brain, said method including the steps of

placing a plurality of electrical-activity transducers at spaced apart locations on the skull,

processing responses of said transducers to generate a time sequence of matrices, each said matrix having elements representing the instantaneous amplitudes of said responses at various locations on the skull and there being a sufficient number of said matrices for a selected time period of actual brain activity for capturing onset of a transient event that occurs with a rapidity on the order of that of an epileptic spike,

generating from said time sequence of matrices a running-average matrix which at any given time represents the current matrix averaged with a selected number of the matrices preceding it in time,

displaying said matrices as a time sequence of topographic maps of the skull at a variable frame rate, each running-average matrix having elements defining discrete points of said maps, and

selectably slowing the frame rate at which said topographic maps are displayed so as to permit observation of said transient event.

74. A method for generating a topographic display of information on the electrical activity of the brain, said method comprising the steps of

placing a plurality of electrical-activity transducers at spaced apart locations on the skull of a patient to measure the EEG response at said locations,

sampling the EEG responses during time intervals shorter than the anticipated interval between interruptions in the state of brain activity,

computing, for each of said transducers, the Fourier transforms of the sampled EEG responses and computing from said Fourier transforms, for each of said transducers, the spectral energy contained in selected frequency bands,

processing said computed spectral energy of said selected frequency bands to generate a plurality of matrices, one said matrix for each selected frequency band, said matrices having elements representing the spectral energy within the respective frequency band at one location on the skull, and

displaying said matrices as topographic maps of the skull, said matrix elements forming discrete points of said maps.

75. A method for generating a topographic display of information on the electrical activity of the brain, said method comprising the steps of

placing a plurality of electrical-activity transducers at spaced apart locations on the skull of a patient,

processing electrical responses measured at said transducers, said processing means including means for generating one or more matrices, each matrix containing a plurality of elements, said elements representing information on the electrical activity of the brain at particular skull locations,

processing at least two said matrices to generate a statistical comparison matrix said statistical comparison matrix having elements each of which representative of a statistical difference between the corresponding elements in said two matrices, and

displaying said statistical comparison matrix as a topographic map of the skull, said matrix elements forming discrete points of said map.

76. A method for generating a topographic display of information on the electrical activity of the brain, said method comprising the steps of

placing a plurality of electrical-activity transducers at spaced apart locations on the skull of a patient,

statistically processing responses at said electrical-activity transducers to generate a coefficient-of-variance matrix, said matrix having elements each of which represents the normalized standard deviation of the responses at one skull location, the normalized standard deviation being the standard deviation divided by the mean,

displaying said coefficient-of-variance matrix as a topographic map of the skull, thereby providing a map of the level of variation in brain activity.

77. A method for generating a topographic display of information on the electrical activity of the brain, said method comprising the steps of

placing a plurality of electrical-activity transducers for placement at spaced apart locations on the skull of a patient,

generating from responses measured at said transducers a time sequence of first matrices, each said first matrix having display elements representing the instantaneous response at various locations on said skull,

generating by interpolation second matrices interspersed in said sequence of first matrices, said second matrices having elements representing the approximate response at instants of time intermediate the instants of time associated with said first matrices,

displaying said first matrices and said interspersed second matrices as a time sequence of topographic maps of the skull, said matrix elements forming discrete points of said maps, said second matrices enhancing the visual smoothness of the transitions over time between said first matrices.

78. A method for generating a topographic display of information on the electrical activity of the brain, said method comprising the steps of

placing a plurality of electrical-activity transducers at spaced apart locations on the skull of a patient,

generating one or more matrices from responses measured at said transducers, each matrix having elements representing information on the electrical activity of the brain at one location on the skull,

displaying said one or more matrices as topographic maps of the skull, said matrix elements forming discrete points of said maps,

previewing said transducer responses or processed versions thereof, said previewing including at least two of the following steps

tagging a response with information on its waveform quality, including an indication of whether the response should be used in later processing,

eliminating a response from further processing at the discretion of the operator,

automatically eliminating a response from further processing if a portion thereof exceeds a predeterminedthreshold,

smoothing a response to eliminate undesired high frequency components,

adjusting a zero baseline of a response, said zero baseline having been previously set automatically

eliminating selected portions of a response from further processing, and

displaying in numerical form the value of a response at a point in time selected by the operator.

79. A method for generating a topographic display of information on the electrical activity of the brain, said method comprising the steps of

placing a plurality of electrical-activity transducers at spaced apart locations on the skull of a patient,

sampling responses measured at said transducers and storing the sampled data as a series of data matrices, one matrix for each sampling time,

selectively viewing the sampled data corresponding to a single transducer as a plot of transducer output versus time,

adjusting portions of said selectively viewed data or eliminating said data from further processing,

processing said data matrices to generate one or more processed matrices said one or more processed matrices having elements each corresponding to one transducer location,

expanding the number of elements in said one or more processed matrices to provide elements corresponding to skull locations intermediate said transducer locations,

providing a video monitor capable of generating a matrix of grey tones for displaying said expanded matrices as topographic maps of the skull, said expanded matrix elements defining the grey tones of discrete points on said maps.

80. A method for generating a topographic display of information on the electrical activity of the brain, said method comprising the steps of

placing a plurality of electrical-activity transducers at spaced apart locations on the skull of a patient,

processing responses measured at said transducers to generate one or more matrices, each matrix having elements representing information on brain activity at different skull locations,

displaying one or more said matrices as topographic maps of the skull, said matrix elements forming discrete points of said maps,

providing a video monitor which generates a visible grey tone at each said discrete point, said tone being variable from a maximum tone to a minimum tone, and

scaling said matrix elements to the available tones.

81. The method of claim 80 wherein

said providing step comprises providing a said video monitor which generates a zero tone intermediate said maximum and minimum tone, and

said scaling step comprises at least two of the following steps

scaling the maximum matrix element to the maximum tone and the minimum matrix element to the minimum tone and linearly interpolating inbetween,

scaling the maximum matrix element to the maximum tone and the minimum matrix element to the zero tone and linearly interpolating in between,

scaling the maximum matrix element to an operator supplied tone,

scaling the minimum matrix element to an operator supplied tone,

excluding from the scaling operation selected unusually high or low valued matrix elements and assigning to matrix elements that fall outside the available tone range the closer of the maximum or minimum tone.

82. A method for generating a topographic display of information on the electrical activity of the brain, said method comprising the steps of

placing a plurality of electrical-activity transducers at spaced apart locations on the skull of a patient,

processing responses measured at said transducers to generate one or more matrices, each matrix having elements representing information on brain activity at different skull locations,

displaying said one or more matrices as a topographic map of the skull, said matrix elements forming discrete points of said map,

providing a video monitor which generates a tone at each said discrete point, said tone varying from a maximum tone to a minimum tone,

normalizing said matrix elements to a selected value, and

scaling said matrix elements to the available tones, said scaling means including means for assigning a selected tone to said selected normalization value.