Hi everyone, my name is Mary and I'm taking part in the #GlobalScienceShow today!

🧵I'm doing a thread discussing a neuroimaging method called EEG (or electroencephalography) 👇🏿. Stay tuned and also check out @K_Ramps who's up next. #ScienceFromHome @MinorityStem #BlackInNeuro
What is EEG? It's an acronym for the word electroencephalography. Let's break that down:

Electro- = relating to electricity
Encephalo- = relating to the brain
Graphy = related to recording/writing

Taken together, EEG is the continuous recording of electrical brain activity.
Our brains are electrically active all the time. EEG uses sensors (or electrodes) placed on the scalp to pick up this electrical signal.

We apply some sort of gel or salt-based solution before recording EEG. This acts as a conductor of your brain's electrical activity.
Our brains are protected by our skull and our hair. This means the electrical signal is quite small when measured at the scalp. To help improve this signal, the electrode wires are attached to an amplifier. This signal is then recorded by a computer.
Here is a picture of one type of EEG net which I use in my research. This net has 128 electrodes which is quite a lot of sensors, so would be considered as 'high-density' EEG.
It's worth noting that to get a good EEG recording, it takes some time to set up the equipment and prepare with your participant.

With that said - do you think we can do EEG with babies?
Before revealing the answer - Let's talk about why we use EEG.

EEG can be recorded while you are awake or asleep. This makes it useful for some medical fields, for example to help diagnose epilepsy, or to look into the different stages of sleep.
EEG is also useful in psychology research, as it helps to understand underlying brain activity when considering different aspects of cognition, for example how you process sounds, faces, touch etc. EEG can be helpful for identifying markers of psychiatric disorders too.
So Yes, babies can get involved in EEG! In fact it's important to look at EEG at different stages of life. It gives us an idea of the brain activity involved when you are processing the world around you, whether you are 8 months-old, 8 years-old, or 88 years-old.
With the EEG setup above, participants cannot move very much, which can be difficult when working with young children. It helps if your task is engaging, not too long, and keeps them entertained. Also remember to praise your baby researchers for all their hard work!
There are mobile EEG systems available too, which give you the opportunity to move around while recording EEG. I have not tried these systems myself but they do look interesting!
We can often see similar patterns in the brain waves across people of different ages. However, there are typically differences in the brain waves of infants and adults when we 'process' the data and look at it in smaller chunks. Brain waves are typically more definitive in adult
No matter their age, it is important to prepare your participant for EEG. It helps to let them know that EEG does not hurt! The sensors are not there to send out any electrical shocks - just to pick up on naturally occurring activity.
Another perk of EEG is that it picks up brain activity in real time, with millisecond accuracy. This means it has good temporal resolution. EEG even picks up on things like blinks and eye movements (though we remove these from the data during pre-processing).
EEG is not so good at telling us the source of the activity i.e. where activity is happening in the brain. So we say it has poor spatial resolution compared to other methods of measuring brain activity.
This Graph gives a good summary of EEG compared to other neuroimaging methods
It's the job of the researcher to communicate that EEG electrodes need to make contact with the scalp. This might seem obvious, but science has historically not been inclusive of Black people... #BlackInNeuro
I was actively discouraged from taking part in EEG as a young researcher, and was told my thick, natural afro hair is 'too thick and problematic' for me to be included in studies.
Meanwhile, it would have been far more useful for those academics to highlight that EEG - like every scientific method - is imperfect and has its limitations, and to guide me through preparation before the session.

There's nothing 'problematic' about Afro hair 🙃 #BlackInNeuro
I plan to speak a bit more about these experiences soon - cue 🚨 #BlackInNeuroWeek 🚨from 27th July - 2nd Aug!! Make sure you follow @BlackInNeuro 🧠so you don't miss any updates. I will share more about my research then👶🏿🧠 & you'll meet Black people in a range of neuro fields🤗
I hope you enjoyed reading my thread on EEG! I will do my best to answer questions if you pop them in the comments.

This was my first time taking part in #GlobalScienceShow so huge thanks to @GlobalSciShow and @MinoritySTEM. Enjoy the rest of the show!
P.S. I hope you found your way to @K_Ramps who was next after me. Why not use your lunch break to catch up on the show?😌🔥👏🏿
It's worth saying that EEG is just one of the many interesting bits of my research (see below)👶🏿🧠📊
Do you and/or your infant scientists want to get involved in some research/learn more? My colleagues @BirkbeckBabylab @bondcbcd may have something for you! https://twitter.com/_MaryAgyapong/status/1274876135415992320?s=20
You can follow @_MaryAgyapong.
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