Improved spindle detection through intuitive pre-processing of electroencephalogram. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • BACKGROUND: Numerous signal processing techniques have been proposed for automated spindle detection on EEG recordings with varying degrees of success. While the latest techniques usually introduce computational complexity and/or vagueness, the conventional techniques attempted in literature have led to poor results. This study presents a spindle detection approach which relies on intuitive pre-processing of the EEG prior to spindle detection, thus resulting in higher accuracy even with standard techniques. NEW METHOD: The pre-processing techniques proposed include applying the derivative operator on the EEG, suppressing the background activity using Empirical Mode Decomposition and shortlisting candidate EEG segments based on eye-movements on the EOG. RESULTS/COMPARISON: Results show that standard signal processing tools such as wavelets and Fourier transforms perform much better when coupled with apt pre-processing techniques. The developed algorithm also relies on data-driven thresholds ensuring its adaptability to inter-subject and inter-scorer variability. When tested on sample EEG segments scored by multiple experts, the algorithm identified spindles with average sensitivities of 96.14 and 92.85% and specificities of 87.59 and 84.85% for Fourier transform and wavelets respectively. These results are found to be on par with results obtained by other recent studies in this area.

published proceedings

  • J Neurosci Methods

author list (cited authors)

  • Jaleel, A., Ahmed, B., Tafreshi, R., Boivin, D. B., Streletz, L., & Haddad, N.

citation count

  • 13

complete list of authors

  • Jaleel, Abdul||Ahmed, Beena||Tafreshi, Reza||Boivin, Diane B||Streletz, Leopold||Haddad, Naim

publication date

  • August 2014