CLINICAL APPLICATIONS OF ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY IN VETERINARY MEDICINE

摘要

Electroencephalography can provide the veterinary clinician with valuable information regarding a patient's cerebrocortical function. Not intended to be used as a "stand alone" test, it is best utilized in combination with other diagnostic modalities.Electroencephalography is defined as "1) the science related to the electrical activity of the brain and 2) the practice of recording and interpreting EEGs". Thus, an electroencephalogram is a "record of electrical activity of the brain taken by means of electrodes placed on the surface of the head, unless otherwise specified". A similar, but far more invasive technique, that of electrocorticography (ECoG), involves the placement of electrodes directed on the cerebral cortex or the dura mater. Ion fluctuations in cortical pyramidal neurons, resulting from numerous excitatory post-synaptic potentials (EPSPs) and inhibitory post-synaptic potentials (IPSPs), are the primary basis for the waveforms depicted in the normal EEG. The background slowing and spindles associated with slow wave sleep are the result of synchronized activity from thalamocortical projection neurons.