Ear-EEG-based sleep scoring in epilepsy: A comparison with scalp-EEG.

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Sofie D Jørgensen, Ivan C Zibrandtsen, Troels W Kjaer

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Sofie D Jørgensen: Neurological Department, Zealand University Hospital, Roskilde, Denmark. ORCID
Ivan C Zibrandtsen: Neurological Department, Zealand University Hospital, Roskilde, Denmark. ORCID
Troels W Kjaer: Neurological Department, Zealand University Hospital, Roskilde, Denmark. ORCID

PMID: 31621976 DOI: 10.1111/jsr.12921

Ear-EEG is a wearable electroencephalogram-recording device. It relies on recording electrodes that are nested within a custom-fitted earpiece in the external ear canal. The concept has previously been tested for seizure detection in epileptic patients and for sleep recordings in a healthy population. This study is the first to examine the use of ear-EEG recordings for sleep staging in patients with epilepsy, comparing it with standard recordings from scalp-EEG. We use individuals with epilepsy because of their multiple sleep disturbances, and their complex relationship between seizures and sleep, which make this group very likely to benefit from wearable electroencephalogram devices for sleep if it were introduced in the clinic. The accuracy of the ear-EEG against that of the scalp-EEG is compared for sleep staging, and we evaluate features of sleep architecture in individuals with epilepsy. A mean kappa value of 0.74 is found for the agreement between hypnograms derived from ear-EEG and scalp-EEG. Furthermore, it was discovered that sleep stage transition frequency could be contributing to the kappa variation. These findings are related to other ear-recording systems in the literature, and the potentials and future obstacles of the device are discussed.

ear-EEG epilepsy mobile electroencephalogram polysomnography sleep

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Adolescent

Adult

Ear

Electroencephalography

Epilepsy

Female

Humans

Male

Middle Aged

Scalp

Wearable Electronic Devices

Young Adult

Journal Article

Comparison analysis between standard polysomnographic data and in-ear-electroencephalography signals: a preliminary study.U-Sleep's resilience to AASM guidelines.A Systematic Review of Sensing Technologies for Wearable Sleep Staging.Health-Related Indicators Measured Using Earable Devices: Systematic Review.

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