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The Arch Electrode: A Novel Dry Electrode Concept for Improved Wearing Comfort

Electroencephalography (EEG) is increasingly used for repetitive and prolonged applications like neurofeedback, brain computer interfacing, and long-term intermittent monitoring. Dry-contact electrodes enable rapid self-application. A common drawback of existing dry electrodes is the limited wearing...

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Autores principales: Vasconcelos, Beatriz, Fiedler, Patrique, Machts, René, Haueisen, Jens, Fonseca, Carlos
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8558300/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34733134
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.748100
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author Vasconcelos, Beatriz
Fiedler, Patrique
Machts, René
Haueisen, Jens
Fonseca, Carlos
author_facet Vasconcelos, Beatriz
Fiedler, Patrique
Machts, René
Haueisen, Jens
Fonseca, Carlos
author_sort Vasconcelos, Beatriz
collection PubMed
description Electroencephalography (EEG) is increasingly used for repetitive and prolonged applications like neurofeedback, brain computer interfacing, and long-term intermittent monitoring. Dry-contact electrodes enable rapid self-application. A common drawback of existing dry electrodes is the limited wearing comfort during prolonged application. We propose a novel dry Arch electrode. Five semi-circular arches are arranged parallelly on a common baseplate. The electrode substrate material is a flexible thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) produced by additive manufacturing. A chemical coating of Silver/Silver-Chloride (Ag/AgCl) is applied by electroless plating using a novel surface functionalization method. Arch electrodes were manufactured and validated in terms of mechanical durability, electrochemical stability, in vivo applicability, and signal characteristics. We compare the results of the dry arch electrodes with dry pin-shaped and conventional gel-based electrodes. 21-channel EEG recordings were acquired on 10 male and 5 female volunteers. The tests included resting state EEG, alpha activity, and a visual evoked potential. Wearing comfort was rated by the subjects directly after application, as well as at 30 min and 60 min of wearing. Our results show that the novel plating technique provides a well-adhering electrically conductive and electrochemically stable coating, withstanding repetitive strain and bending tests. The signal quality of the Arch electrodes is comparable to pin-shaped dry electrodes. The average channel reliability of the Arch electrode setup was 91.9 ± 9.5%. No considerable differences in signal characteristics have been observed for the gel-based, dry pin-shaped, and arch-shaped electrodes after the identification and exclusion of bad channels. The comfort was improved in comparison to pin-shaped electrodes and enabled applications of over 60 min duration. Arch electrodes required individual adaptation of the electrodes to the orientation and hairstyle of the volunteers. This initial preparation time of the 21-channel cap increased from an average of 5 min for pin-like electrodes to 15 min for Arch electrodes and 22 min for gel-based electrodes. However, when re-applying the arch electrode cap on the same volunteer, preparation times of pin-shaped and arch-shaped electrodes were comparable. In summary, our results indicate the applicability of the novel Arch electrode and coating for EEG acquisition. The novel electrode enables increased comfort for prolonged dry-contact measurement.
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spelling pubmed-85583002021-11-02 The Arch Electrode: A Novel Dry Electrode Concept for Improved Wearing Comfort Vasconcelos, Beatriz Fiedler, Patrique Machts, René Haueisen, Jens Fonseca, Carlos Front Neurosci Neuroscience Electroencephalography (EEG) is increasingly used for repetitive and prolonged applications like neurofeedback, brain computer interfacing, and long-term intermittent monitoring. Dry-contact electrodes enable rapid self-application. A common drawback of existing dry electrodes is the limited wearing comfort during prolonged application. We propose a novel dry Arch electrode. Five semi-circular arches are arranged parallelly on a common baseplate. The electrode substrate material is a flexible thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) produced by additive manufacturing. A chemical coating of Silver/Silver-Chloride (Ag/AgCl) is applied by electroless plating using a novel surface functionalization method. Arch electrodes were manufactured and validated in terms of mechanical durability, electrochemical stability, in vivo applicability, and signal characteristics. We compare the results of the dry arch electrodes with dry pin-shaped and conventional gel-based electrodes. 21-channel EEG recordings were acquired on 10 male and 5 female volunteers. The tests included resting state EEG, alpha activity, and a visual evoked potential. Wearing comfort was rated by the subjects directly after application, as well as at 30 min and 60 min of wearing. Our results show that the novel plating technique provides a well-adhering electrically conductive and electrochemically stable coating, withstanding repetitive strain and bending tests. The signal quality of the Arch electrodes is comparable to pin-shaped dry electrodes. The average channel reliability of the Arch electrode setup was 91.9 ± 9.5%. No considerable differences in signal characteristics have been observed for the gel-based, dry pin-shaped, and arch-shaped electrodes after the identification and exclusion of bad channels. The comfort was improved in comparison to pin-shaped electrodes and enabled applications of over 60 min duration. Arch electrodes required individual adaptation of the electrodes to the orientation and hairstyle of the volunteers. This initial preparation time of the 21-channel cap increased from an average of 5 min for pin-like electrodes to 15 min for Arch electrodes and 22 min for gel-based electrodes. However, when re-applying the arch electrode cap on the same volunteer, preparation times of pin-shaped and arch-shaped electrodes were comparable. In summary, our results indicate the applicability of the novel Arch electrode and coating for EEG acquisition. The novel electrode enables increased comfort for prolonged dry-contact measurement. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-10-18 /pmc/articles/PMC8558300/ /pubmed/34733134 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.748100 Text en Copyright © 2021 Vasconcelos, Fiedler, Machts, Haueisen and Fonseca. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Vasconcelos, Beatriz
Fiedler, Patrique
Machts, René
Haueisen, Jens
Fonseca, Carlos
The Arch Electrode: A Novel Dry Electrode Concept for Improved Wearing Comfort
title The Arch Electrode: A Novel Dry Electrode Concept for Improved Wearing Comfort
title_full The Arch Electrode: A Novel Dry Electrode Concept for Improved Wearing Comfort
title_fullStr The Arch Electrode: A Novel Dry Electrode Concept for Improved Wearing Comfort
title_full_unstemmed The Arch Electrode: A Novel Dry Electrode Concept for Improved Wearing Comfort
title_short The Arch Electrode: A Novel Dry Electrode Concept for Improved Wearing Comfort
title_sort arch electrode: a novel dry electrode concept for improved wearing comfort
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8558300/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34733134
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.748100
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