Neurometrics is the science of measuring the underlying organization of the brain's electrical activity. Certain brainwave frequencies are associated with general psychological processes.
EEG
Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method to record an electrogram of the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain. The biosignals detected by EEG have been shown to represent the postsynaptic potentials of pyramidal neurons in the neocortex ...
s are used to measure the
brain wave
''Brain Wave'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Poul Anderson, first published in serial form in ''Space Science Fiction'' in 1953, and then as a novel in 1954. Anderson had said that he could consider it one of his top five books. Th ...
s.
Overview
According to
E. Roy John, the pioneer in the field of neurometrics, neurometrics is
In 1977, Roy John and Robert Thatcher published one of the first texts in the field of neurometrics. The text was entitled ''Neurometrics''.
The field of Neurometrics began to expand significantly in the 1990s. This was due in part to the advent of inexpensive methods of linking computers to traditional EEG devices. This allowed researchers to transform analog EEG signals into digital signals for statistical analysis. Leading researchers in the field included Frank Duffy, E. Roy John, and Robert Thatcher. Between the 1980s and the present time, thousands of articles in the field of neurometrics have been published.
Entrepreneurs began to take notice of the potential of neurometrics in the late 1980s. In 1991,
Lexicor Medical Technology filed one of the first
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food s ...
(FDA) class two filings in the field of Neurometric software and related EEG devices, called the NeuroSearch-24.
NxLink Ltd. built upon the Lexicor Medical Technology 510(k)s with their filing of the Neurometric Analysis System in 1998. Robert Thatcher filed a 510(k) with the FDA on his Neuroguide Analysis System in 2004. The Thatcher filing was then followed by an FDA filing by BRC Operations PTY Limited, with their BRC Software Product
BRC Software Product
/ref> in 2005.
Each of these devices represented software which was capable of comparing a subject's EEG data to a normative database; the software also allows clinicians to measure the subject's variance from normal. This technique promises to allow clinicians to evaluate various mental and psychiatric conditions.
References
{{Neuroscience
Basic neuroscience research