Neurophysiological Measures of Brain Activity: Going from the Scalp to the Brain

摘要

Behavior, such as reaction time and correctness of a response, is the most studied output of the mind in the fields of psychology and human factors. With the advent of modern neuroimaging technologies, opportunities exist for direct study of the mind's machinery: the brain. Moreover, there are opportunities for applying these technologies to solve a host of educational and engineering challenges, such as how to design better interfaces with computer systems or how to better educate and train students. The electroencephalogram (EEG) is a direct reflection of the functioning brain, and technologies that enable recording of the EEG have been in existence for more than 50 years. Within the past decade substantial progress has been made in EEG technology, permitting a direct view into the brain. We cover these advances in this paper, which include dense-sensor array technology and physics-based computational head models, and present several examples of how they have been applied.