Detectability in Scalp EEGs of Epileptic Spikes Emitted from Brain Electrical Sources of Different Sizes and Locations: A Simulation Study Using Realistic Head Models of Elderly Adults

Background. Epilepsy is prevalent in the elderly, whose brain morphologies and skull electrical characteristics differ from those of younger adults. Here, using a multivariate definition of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), we explored the detectability of epileptic spikes in scalp EEG measurements in elderly by forward simulations of hypersynchronous spikes generated at 78 cortical regions of interest (ROIs) in the presence of background noise. Methods. Simulated electric potentials were measured at 18, 35, and 70 standard 10–20 electrode positions using three reference methods: infinity reference (INF), common average reference (CAR), and average mastoid reference (M1M2). MRIs of six elderly subjects were used to construct finite element method (FEM) models with age-adjusted skull conductivities. Results. SNRs of epileptic spikes increased with increasing sizes of the brain electrical source areas, although medial and deep brain regions such as the hippocampus showed lower SNRs, consistent with clinical findings. The SNRs were greater in the 70-channel dataset than in the 18-channel and 35-channel datasets, especially for ROIs located closer to the head surface. In addition, the SNRs were lower for the CAR and M1M2 references than for the ideal INF reference. Moreover, we found comparable results in the standard FEM heads with age-adjusted skull conductivities. Conclusions. The results provide insights for evaluating scalp EEG data in elderly patients with suspected epilepsy, and suggest that age-adjusted skull conductivity is an important factor for forward models in elderly adults, and that the standard FEM head with age-adjusted skull conductivity can be used when MRIs are not available.