Automatic EEG Spike Detection

Since the 1970s advances in science and technology during each succeeding decade have renewed the expectation of efficient, reliable automatic epileptiform spike detection (AESD). But even when reinforced with better, faster tools, clinically reliable unsupervised spike detection remains beyond our reach. Expert-selected spike parameters were the first and still most widely used for AESD. Thresholds for amplitude, duration, sharpness, rise-time, fall-time, after-coming slow waves, background frequency, and more have been used. It is still unclear which of these wave parameters are essential, beyond peak-peak amplitude and duration. Wavelet parameters are very appropriate to AESD but need to be combined with other parameters to achieve desired levels of spike detection efficiency. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and expert-system methods may have reached peak efficiency. Support Vector Machine (SVM) technology focuses on outliers rather than centroids of spike and nonspike data clusters and should improve AESD efficiency. An exemplary spike/non-spike database is suggested as a tool for assessing parameters and methods for AESD and is available in CSV or Matlab formats from the author at brainvue@gmail.com. Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) is presented as a graphic method for finding better spike parameters and for the step-wise evaluation of the spike detection process.