Development and application of a new method for field computation in biomedical engineering

• Applicant: Dr.-Ing. Bojana Petkovic
• Subject Area: Electronic Semiconductors, Components and Circuits, Integrated Systems, Sensor Technology, Theoretical Electrical Engineering
• Term: from 2015 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 271533044

We propose to develop and apply a new numerical field computation method for biomedical engineering applications. This novel hybrid boundary element method (HBEM), which is based on the equivalent electrode method, does not require numerical integration and provides results in a short time and with low memory requirements. HBEM can also handle anisotropic material properties (e.g. anisotropic conductivity). HBEM will be applied for calculating of electric and magnetic activity of neuronal sources in Electroencephalography (EEG) and Magnetoencephalography (MEG) and of cardiac sources in Electrocardiography (ECG) and Magnetocardiography (MCG). The method will be applied to solve a general magnetostatic problem in Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). The novel forward solution will be verified by comparing it to existing analytical solutions for simple head and torso models as well as well-established numerical solutions for realistically shaped models of the corresponding parts of the human body. Interfacing of HBEM with an existing source reconstruction package will be provided. As a result of this project, a new forward procedure for EEG, MEG, ECG, MCG and TMS will be established and provided in an open source library.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Italy
• Co-Investigators: Professor Dr.-Ing. Jens Haueisen; Professor Dr. Luca di Rienzo