Soft textile electrodes for EEG monitoring

There is a need for long term monitoring of the brain during intensive care. This is e.g. the case for newborn babies that have been exposed to hypoxia during delivery. Electroencephalography (EEG) is the technique of choice. To get a clear and detailed view of the brain activity a large number of EEG electrodes should be used. Applying traditional electrodes one by one is a time-consuming and technically demanding work and therefore electrode caps are sometimes used. The existing caps have however been found to be suboptimal for long term monitoring because they may induce too high a pressure on the scalp of the babies. We have tested three different types of textile electrodes with regard to their potential use for EEG monitoring. The results show that soft conducting textile materials can indeed be used for EEG monitoring.