An EEG System to Measure Fetal Brain Development

Yan Zhu of the University of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in China will build a system based on electroencephalography to monitor the activity of the fetal brain in utero. Due to technical and practical limitations, current methods for measuring brain activity are limited to newborns. However, analyzing development of the fetal brain would reveal new insight into very early stages of neurodevelopment, and could lead to improved treatments for certain disorders. They will adapt electroencephalography, which measures electrical activity in the brain, to detect the weaker signals of the fetal brain via multiple electrodes on the mother's abdomen, and build analysis software that can differentiate these signals from background noise. Once the prototype has been built, they will test it on humans to further refine the design.