Electroencephalography in ellipsoidal geometry

The human brain is shaped in the form of an ellipsoid with average semiaxes equal to 6, 6.5 and 9 cm. This is a genuine 3-D shape that reflects the anisotropic characteristics of the brain as a conductive body. The direct electroencephalography problem in such anisotropic geometry is studied in the present work. The results, which are obtained through successively solving an interior and an exterior boundary value problem, are expressed in terms of elliptic integrals and ellipsoidal harmonics, both in Jacobian as well as in Cartesian form. Reduction of our results to spheroidal as well as to spherical geometry is included. In contrast to the spherical case where the boundary does not appear in the solution, the boundary of the realistic conductive brain enters explicitly in the relative expressions for the electric field. Moreover, the results in all three geometrical models reveal that to some extend the strength of the electric source is more important than its location.  2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved