Changes in scalp potentials and spatial smoothing effects of inclusion of dura layer in human head models for EEG simulations

The dura layer which covers the brain is less conductive than the CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) and also more conductive than the skull bone. This could significantly influence the flow of volume currents from cortex to the scalp surface which will also change the magnitude and spatial profiles of scalp potentials. This was examined with a 3-D finite element method (FEM) model of an adult subject constructed from 192 segmented axial magnetic resonance (MR) slices with 256×256 pixel resolution. The voxel resolution was 1×1×1 mm. The model included the dura layer. In addition, other major tissues were also identified. The electrical conductivities of various tissues were obtained from the literature. The conductivities of dura and CSF were 0.001 S/m and 0.06 S/m, respectively. The electrical activity of the cortex was represented by 144,000 distributed dipolar sources with orientations normal to the local cortical surface. The dipolar intensity was in the range of 0.0–0.4 mA meter with a uniform random distribution. Scalp potentials were simulated for two head models with an adaptive finite element solver. One model had the dura layer and in the other model, dura layer was replaced with the CSF. Spatial contour plots of potentials on the cortical surface, dural surface and the scalp surface were made. With the inclusion of the dura layer, scalp potentials decrease by about 20%. The contours of gyri and sulci structures were visible in the spatial profiles of the cortical potentials which were smoothed out on the dural surface and were not visible on the scalp surface. These results suggest that dura layer should be included for an accurate modeling of scalp and cortical potentials.