Asian Scientist (Jul. 25, 2013) – A simple method of converting the brain wave signals of people living with epilepsy into sound has been developed by a team of researchers at the University of Sydney.
The method, known as sonification, is an auditory display technique for representing a sequence of data values as sound, says Dr Alistair McEwan, who coordinated the team’s work.
“An electroencephalogram (EEG) records and measures the electrical activity of the brain. The key brain wave signals associated with epilepsy repeat about five times per second. But this frequency is too low for the human ear to hear, so using sonification we speed up the signal by 60 times,” said Dr McEwan.
“At that speed, normal brain activity becomes audible and sounds like normal background noise, for example, a murmur of voices and a squeaky computer or air conditioning fan. Seizures are easily identified as they are associated with a rapid increase in pitch. They sound like a whoopee cushion.”
EEG, or monitoring of brain waves, is the best diagnostic tool and most common test used to diagnose epilepsy. However, learning how to diagnose epilepsy is difficult, labor intensive and takes years to master.
The researchers tested their method using a group of non-experts, putting them through a two-hour training session where they learned how to audibly distinguish between seizures and some common sounds. The non-experts were then asked to perform unaided audio detection of 644 hours of EEG data that contained 46 seizures.
The researchers found that unaided audio detection by the non-experts was as accurate as visual detection, which usually requires a full year of training. Therefore, this easy-to-learn audio detection method may allow epilepsy sufferers themselves or their carers to collect information about their conditions. With input from medical specialists, this information could also be valuable for assessment and determination of medication regimes.
The researchers hope to take their research to the next phase of clinical trials and develop a portable EEG system.
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Source: University of Sydney ; Photo: digitalbob8/Flickr.
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