How Mathematics Effects Electroencephalograms

Timothy Norfolk is quoted as saying that "[i]t is as if mathematics were the vegetables of the academic dinner: Everyone knows that they are good for you, but no one forces you to eat them." While this is a comical outlook on the lack of required Mathematics in education curriculum, lack of a mathematical background can seriously impair a student's ability of function and grow within society. Within the medical field there are numerous applications involving mathematics. These applications range from applications using basic math, such as, counting a pulse or respirations rate, to applications using complex mathematical concepts, such as the theory behind reading and ECG (electrocardiogram) or and EEG (electroencephalogram). Electroencephalograms alone use a myriad of mathematically based concepts.

EEGs are a measure of brain voltages at various points in the brain to detect how the voltages surge within the brains pathways. There's normal wave motion within the human brain. There are also a multitude of conditions, such as, epilepsy and other medical conditions that produce abnormal wave patterns in the brain. These abnormal patterns are indicative of a physiological problem.

This procedure is preformed by hooking between sixteen and twenty-five metal electrodes to a patients head. Mathematics is used to count the number of electrodes. There is also a schematic that must be followed to properly place the electrode on the patients head. Mathematics, the ability to follow coordinates on a grid, is used to insure the proper placement of electrodes.

An electroencephalograph, the machine that performs the EEG, interprets alpha, beta, theta, and delta waves and converts them into a picture of the electrical activity of the brain.

A mathematical equation is used when the electroencephalograph manufacturing company programs the equipment. On the medical end of the procedure, an EEG technician or a neurologist interpret the EEG produced from the electroencephalograph. Frequency is used to interpret the EEG waves.

Frequency means the number of waves per unit time - per second. The frequencies of the EEG waves run