Simulating Scalp EEG from Ultrahigh-Density ECoG Data Illustrates Cortex to Scalp Projection Patterns

Ultrahigh-density electrocorticography (μECoG) provides unprecedented spatial resolution for recording cortical electrical activity. This study uses simulated scalp projections from an μECoG recording to challenge the assumption that channel-level electroencephalography (EEG) reflects only local field potentials near the recording electrode. Using a 1024-electrode μECoG array placed on the primary motor cortex during finger movements, we applied Adaptive Mixture Independent Component Analysis (AMICA) to decompose activity into maximally independent grid activity components and projected these to 207 simulated EEG scalp electrode channels using a high-definition MR image-based electrical forward-problem head model. Our findings demonstrate how cortical surface-recorded potentials propagate to scalp electrodes both far from and near to the generating location. This work has significant implications for interpreting both EEG and ECoG data in clinical and research applications. Clinical Relevance This study provides insights for interpreting scalp EEG data, demonstrating that scalp channel activity represents a complex mixture of distributed cortical source activities rather than primarily activity generated nearest to the scalp electrodes. These findings may hopefully spur improvement in EEG-based diagnostics for neurological disorders.