
Open access
Date
2020-06-17Type
- Journal Article
Abstract
Background: Sleep is commonly assessed by recording the electroencephalogram (EEG) of the sleeping brain. As sleep assessments in a lab environment are cumbersome for both the participant and researcher, it would be highly desirable to record sleep EEG with a user-friendly and mobile device. Dry electrodes that are reusable, low-cost, and easy to apply would be an essential component of such a device. In this study, we developed a testing protocol to investigate the performance of novel flat-type dry electrodes for sleep EEG recordings in free-living conditions.
Methods: Overnight sleep EEG, electrooculogram and electromyogram of four young and healthy participants were recorded at home. Two identical ambulatory recording devices, one using novel flat-type dry electrodes, the other using self-adhesive pre-gelled electrodes, simultaneously recorded sleep EEG. Between both electrode types, we then compared the signal quality, the incidence of artifacts, the sensitivity, specificity and inter-scoring reliability (Cohen’s kappa) of sleep staging, as well as the agreement of important characteristics of sleep-specific EEG microstructure features, such as slow waves (0.5–4 Hz) and sleep spindles (10–16 Hz).
Results: Our testing protocol comprehensively compared the two electrode types on a macro- and microstructure level of sleep. The dry and pre-gelled electrodes both had comparable signal quality and sleep staging was feasible with both electrodes. Also, slow-wave and spindle characteristics were similar. However, sweat artifacts were more prevalent in the flat-type dry electrodes.
Conclusion: With a reliable testing protocol, the performance of dry electrodes can be compared to reference technologies and objectively assessed also in free-living conditions. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000416414Publication status
publishedExternal links
Journal / series
Frontiers in NeuroscienceVolume
Pages / Article No.
Publisher
Frontiers Research FoundationSubject
Protocol design; SLEEP (NEUROPHYSIOLOGY); Sleep spindles; slow waves; remote monitoringOrganisational unit
09533 - Karlen, Walter (ehemalig) / Karlen, Walter (former)
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Is supplemented by: https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000416415
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