Assessing the dependence of the number of EEG channels in the brain networks' modulations

Aim of the study was to evaluate the influence of the EEG channels number on the brain networks' analysis, to establish whether and how much higher density EEG actually contributes to add supplementary information to brain networks analyses. 59 electrodes EEGs were recorded in 20 healthy subjects in eyes open and closed condition. For each condition, we analyzed the recording dataset of 59 channels, and three sub-datasets obtained by the selection of 44, 30, 19 channels from the 59 ones. Then we computed the EEG sources of current density and evaluated the SW index in the four EEGs data montages. Results showed that in the eyes open condition the number of recording channels influences more the SW index modulation respect that in the eyes closed condition. Conversely, in the eyes closed condition the brain activity is less affected by specific brain regions' activations and the signal's generators produced not significant variations on EEG data and consequently the small world network measure is not affected by the recording channels number. We can conclude that in the eyes closed condition, the 19 EEG channels is an acceptable montage to study brain networks' modulations, to both detect the higher and the lower brain waves' frequencies.

Automated summary

The study aimed to assess the impact of EEG channels number on brain networks' analysis, finding that more channels influence the small-world index more in eyes open condition. In contrast, brain activity in eyes closed condition is less affected by specific regions' activations, and the small-world network measure is not affected by the number of recording channels. A montage of 19 EEG channels is deemed acceptable for studying brain networks' modulations in eyes closed condition.