SEB4233

Biomedical Signal Processing

EEG Analysis 1:
Newborn Seizure Detection

Dr. Malarvili Balakrishnan

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 Newborn Seizure
 Seizures are the most frequent, and often only, clinical sign of
CNS abnormality in the newborn.

 Neonatal seizures potentially lead to

 subsequent death, cerebral palsy, mental retardation,
epilepsy, attention/hyperactivity disorders, behavioural
disturbances and other central nervous system (CNS) based

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 Newborn Seizure
 Seizures are defined as paroxysmal, excessive, and/or
hypersynchronous discharges of a critical mass of cortical
neurons

 Causes of seizures
 hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), intracerebral birth
injuries, CNS infections or metabolic disturbances.

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 Identification of Seizure
 Newborn seizures can be identified through clinical and/or electrical
manifestations.
 In adults, the clinical signs
 uncontrollable repetitive or jerky movements of the body parts,
changes in the patient's state of consciousness and behaviour, such
as increased agitation, frightened or confused behaviour, visual
sensations, impairment of consciousness and amnesia.
 In the newborns, these signs are much more subtle
 sustained eye opening with ocular fixation, repetitive blinking or
fluttering of the eyelids, drooling, sucking and other slight facial
manifestations.
 These characteristics may also be part of the repertoire of normal
behaviour in newborns. Thus, the challenge is to distinguish between
normal and abnormal behaviours. 4
 EEG – standard

 Neonatal electrographic seizures consist of paroxysmal events

characterized as a repetitive, evolving, complex and
stereotyped waveform.

 EEG background is irregular and without apparent periodicity

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 Time approach

 The newborn EEG can be divided into background (non-seizure)

state and ictal (seizure) state for detection and classification
purposes.

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 Time approach (Cont.)
An Epoch of Non-seizure EEG
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(microvolt)

e
Voltage

d
tu
il 0
p
m
A

-5
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Time(s)

An Epoch of Seizure EEG

30

20

10
(microvolt)

e 0
Voltage

d
u
ti
l
p -10
m
A
-20

-30

-40
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Time(s)
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Frequency Approach to Detect Seizure
 Using fft

 Frequency of the dominant spectral peak;

 Width of the dominant spectral peak;

 Ratio of the power in the dominant spectral peak to that of the

background spectrum in the same frequency band.

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Frequency Approach to Detect Seizure
20 a
1400 b

1200
15
1000

ed e 800
d
ut 10 ut
in in
ga ga 600
M M
400
5
200

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Frequency (Hz) Frequency(Hz)

Figure 2.10: Frequency domain representations of

(a) seizure and (b) non-seizure epochs.
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