Search

MiS Preprint Repository

We have decided to discontinue the publication of preprints on our preprint server as of 1 March 2024. The publication culture within mathematics has changed so much due to the rise of repositories such as ArXiV (www.arxiv.org) that we are encouraging all institute members to make their preprints available there. An institute's repository in its previous form is, therefore, unnecessary. The preprints published to date will remain available here, but we will not add any new preprints here.

MiS Preprint
47/2007

Numerical mathematics for the modeling of a current dipole in EEG source reconstruction using finite element head models

Carsten H. Wolters, Harald Köstler, Christian Möller, Jochen Härdtlein, Lars Grasedyck and Wolfgang Hackbusch

Abstract

In electroencephalography (EEG) inverse source analysis, a mathematical dipole is widely used as the model of the primary current source. The inverse methods are based on solutions to the corresponding forward problem, i.e., the simulation of the electric potential in the head volume conductor for a dipole in the cortex sheet of the human brain. The current dipole introduces a strong singularity on the right-hand side of the governing Poisson-type differential equation that has to be treated specifically when solving the equation towards the electric potential.

In this paper, we give a proof for existence and uniqueness of the weak solution in the function space of zero-mean potential functions, using a subtraction approach. The method divides the total potential into a singularity potential and a correction potential. The singularity potential is due to a mathematical dipole in an infinite region of homogeneous conductivity (the one at the source position). We then state convergence properties of the Finite Element (FE) method for the numerical solution to the correction potential. We validate our approach using high-resolution tetrahedra and regular and geometry-conforming node-shifted hexahedra elements in a three-layer sphere model. Validation has been carried out using sophisticated visualization techniques and statistical metrics for a comparison of the numerical results with analytical series expansion formulas at the surface and within the volume conductor. Finally, we validate the computed potentials of the subtraction method with the results of a direct approach in realistically-shaped FE head volume conductor models.

Received:
May 10, 2007
Published:
May 10, 2007
MSC Codes:
35Q80, 65N21, 92C50
Keywords:
source reconstruction, EEG, subtraction method

Related publications

inJournal
2007 Repository Open Access
Carsten H. Wolters, Harald Köstler, Christian Möller, Jochen Härdtlein, Lars Grasedyck and Wolfgang Hackbusch

Numerical mathematics of the subtraction method for the modeling of a current dipole in EEG source reconstruction using finite element head models

In: SIAM journal on scientific computing, 30 (2007) 1, pp. 24-45