Clinical Application of Combined EEG-qEEG Functional Neuroimaging in the Practice of Pediatric Neuroscience: A Personal Perspective

Abstract

This brief article is an overview of my personal experience over the past almost 10 years of the clinical use of EEG and quantitative EEG (qEEG) functional neuroimaging in a busy pediatric neurology practice. The concomitant use of surface EEG and functional electromagnetic EEG neuroimaging/qEEG in clinical practice provides significant additional clinical and neurophysiologic information. The qEEG is a noninvasive, inexpensive, portable technique with high temporal resolution (milliseconds) and improving spatial resolution (down to 3 mm³) and is an appropriate and validated tool for investigation of abnormal brain dynamics and connectivity of neuronal networks in clinical disorders of the brain. This article describes the daily applicability and utility of this modality in assisting diagnosis and clinical management of patients with a wide variety of presenting symptoms, including headaches, tics, autism spectrum disorder, inattention, sleep dysregulation, anxiety, and depression. The ease of data acquisition and analysis in clinical practices, coupled with skilled interpretation and clinical application, makes this tool one of the most valuable clinical tools to complement a thorough history and examination process.