From Bedside to Desktop: A Data Protocol for Normative Intracranial EEG and Abnormality Mapping

TL;DR

This paper introduces a standardized data protocol for creating normative intracranial EEG maps, enabling comparison of individual brain activity against population norms to detect abnormalities, which was previously lacking in the field.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive, step-by-step dataflow guide for generating normative icEEG maps and abnormality detection, filling a critical gap in standardization and reproducibility.

Findings

Developed a cohesive data pipeline used in multiple publications.

Enables regional brain activity normalization and abnormality detection.

Improves consistency and understanding in intracranial EEG research.

Abstract

Normative mapping is a framework used to map population-level features of health-related variables. It is widely used in neuroscience research, but the literature lacks established protocols in modalities that do not support healthy control measurements, such as intracranial EEG (icEEG). An icEEG normative map would allow researchers to learn about population-level brain activity and enable comparison of individual data against these norms to identify abnormalities. Currently, no standardised guide exists for transforming clinical data into a normative, regional icEEG map. Papers often cite different software and numerous articles to summarise the lengthy method, making it laborious for other researchers to understand or apply the process. Our protocol seeks to remedy this gap by providing a dataflow guide and key decision points that summarise existing methods. This protocol is used heavily in published works from our own lab (twelve peer-reviewed journal publications). Briefly, we take as input, icEEG recordings and neuroimaging data from people with epilepsy who are undergoing evaluation for resective surgery. As final outputs, we obtain a normative icEEG map, comprising signal properties localised to brain regions. Optionally, we can also process new subjects through the same pipeline and obtain their z-scores (or centiles) in each brain region, for abnormality detection and localisation. To date, a single, cohesive, dataflow pipeline for generating normative icEEG maps, along with abnormality mapping, has not been created. We envisage that this dataflow guide will not only increase understanding and application of normative mapping methods, but will also improve the consistency and quality of studies in the field.