EEG Artifacts

• Physiological Artifacts
• Eye movements
• ECG artifacts
• EMG artifacts
• Glossokinetic artifact
• Galvanic skin response
• Physiological movements
• Nonphysiological Artifacts
• Instrumental artifacts
• Electrode artifacts
• Environmental
• Digital
Eye Movements

This sample demonstrates the natural fall-off of voltages

seen with opening of the eye, and also demonstrates the
blocking of the alpha rhythm when this occurs
Eye Movements

Horizontal nystagmus to the right. There is a positive phase reversal at

the F8 electrodfe as the cornea comes closer to the electrode. There is
a lesser negative phase reversal at the same time as the F7 electrode
becomes less positive as a result of the cornea moving away from the
left temporal area.
Electroretinogram (ERG)

ERG recorded in a bipolar montage. Note that the time scale is

increased to measure the latency of the response from the stimulus
artifact seen in the first channel. Time at “A” shows a 13-millisecond
latency, while the latency at “B” is 33 milliseconds, these correspond to
the “a and b” wave of the ERG.
ECG Artifacts

ECG artifact that is recorded from electrodes on the right temporal

bipolar montage and mimics a periodic pattern. Without an ACG
monitoring channel, one might find it difficult to call this an artifact.
ECG Artifacts

Pulse artifact recorded from the C4 electrode. With digital EEG, it is

easy to reformat any montage; in this case the ECG monitoring channel
was changed to record the ECG close to the artifact.
EMG Artifacts

EMG artifact recorded while the patient is eating lunch in a monitoring

unit. This artifact is reminiscent of the EMG artifact seen during a
temporal lobe seizure with oral automatisms.
EMG Artifacts

Oral automatisms seen during a clinical seizure, prior to any EEG

detectable seizure pattern
Glossokinetic Artifacts

Glossokinetic artifact generated by tongue movement as the patient is

instructed to say “la, la, la, la”. This is monitored by an electrode placed
on the submental muscle in this case reffered to a PZ refference.
Instrumental Artifacts

Electrostatic artifact created by IV fluid drip falling near the electrode

wires. Notice that there is no logical distribution to this artifact.
Instrumental Artifacts
Electrode Artifacts

Electrode “pop” artifact. In addition to demonstrating one of the most

common artifacts seen in EEGs, this recording demonstrates that the
high-voltage deflection actually exceeds the limits of the individual
channel sensitivity recording capabilities and blocks or “square off” at
the top
Electrode Artifacts

Electrode artifact at the O1 electrode. The frequency of the discharge mimics

the ECG signal on the last channel. The artifact and the ECG signal are not
time locked, as they should be if the artifact were related to the heart. The
technologiest noted that the mother of the patient was patting the baby’s back
during the recording.
Digital

Digital artifact produced at electrode F3 is a result of missed sampling

of one data point in the channel recording F3-P3.
Digital

Effect of aliasing caused by inadequate sampling rate. This sine wave

recording sweeps through a frequency range of 0-50 Hz at constant
voltage and a sampling rate of 50 Hz. Notice the effect on the 25 Hz
frequency.
This multiplexing artifact results when sampling is done on channels at a time
instead of sampling the entire 32-channel amplifier simultaneously. A timing
error occurs and the groups of 16 channels invert. This is clearly seen by
observing the position of the ECG monitoring channel.