Project objectives

Better understanding of the correlation between the changes in electroencephalography (EEG) and blood pressure (BP) can serve as a baseline for studying and introducing new approaches to medical conditions affecting nervous and cardiovascular systems. To enable research for this association, we implemented a study protocol for simultaneous data acquisition of EEG and BP, with four interventions intended to trigger brain activity: stroop test, auditory simulation, mental math and passive leg raise.

Methodology and implementation

During the interventions, real-time EEG and BP values of the test participants are simultaneously recorded in accordance with the protocol guidelines. The tests were taken with two measurement systems: BIOPAC MP-160 with two EEG100C amplifiers (four electrodes in total) for EEG instrumentation and CNSystems CNAP Monitor 500 for BP instrumentation. Utilizing Python, we analyzed the correlation of the relevant data points in our report for each instance. In addition, we created a separate script for the detection of positives (peaks) and negatives (falls) and crossings of zero-point in the data graphs for future reference.

Results

We managed to create a study protocol for simultaneous measurement, which was validated with non-clinical testing (five iterations in total). We concluded that the protocol is functional for these purposes. Data analysis results in particular highlight the importance for further research. While the overall correlations are generally low in our findings across the spectrum, we discovered the highest correlation with BP among alpha (α) waves of EEG, which is a promising outcome.

Intervention impact on the EEG intensity growth, when compared to the 5-minute resting state, can be noticed across the spectrum. The most significant on-average increase was seen with Mental Math intervention, with 32.7% concerning both channels. The highest individual result was identified in the Stroop Test with first channel EEG, with a 43.9% increase in intensity. A broader, notable trend can be discovered with the interventions used. On average, there is an increase of 21% in EEG intensity across 5 test iterations with 36 measurements/set of data (20 AF7-AF8 + 16 TP9-TP10).

Future Development

As our studies were non-clinical (limited) and conducted on the team members only, future clinical studies utilizing the protocol may be conducted by appropriate personnel with necessary field qualifications and they may cover broad ranges of medical conditions, such as (but not limited to) hyper- and hypotension, migraines, diabetes and various neurodegenerative diseases. Data acquisition with two separate measurement systems creates additional complexity, which can potentially be addressed with hardware innovations currently unavailable. Therefore, further hardware research is warranted to make simultaneous measurement as seamless as possible.