Patent Document ID: 20130231553
Application ID: 13863724
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method for use of EIT, comprising: performing an EIT procedure, including distributing a plurality of electrodes on a subject's head such that each electrode makes electrical contact with the head surface at a respective location that is spaced apart from the location associated with each other electrode, and performing an EIT current injecting step by injecting a first set of currents into the head, each of the currents of said first set being injected by a corresponding two or more of said electrodes and having a sufficiently small magnitude so as not to provoke a substantial brain response, either alone or in combination with other currents of said first set, and, during a time when said first set of electrodes is injecting one or more of the currents of said first set, utilizing a plurality of the remaining electrodes to measure respective first electrical potentials arising in response; performing at least one of an EEG procedure and an MREIT procedure, using the same electrodes as used for performing said EIT procedure; wherein, if said EEG procedure is performed, the method includes measuring, at said remaining electrodes, respective second electrical potentials resulting from the electrical activity of a first set of one or more sources in the brain during said time, obtaining an EIT final solution to an inverse problem for the distribution of static tissue impedances in the head posed by said first injected currents and said first electrical potentials, obtaining one or more iterative EEG solutions to an inverse problem for localizing the sources of said first set posed by said second electrical potentials, and constraining one or more of said EEG solutions by said EIT final solution; and wherein, if said MREIT procedure is performed, the method further includes performing an MREIT current injecting step that is the same as said EIT current injecting step, obtaining a magnetic resonance image of the currents injected in said MREIT current injecting step, and (c) obtaining one or more iterative EIT solutions to an inverse problem for the distribution of static tissue impedances in the head posed by said first set of currents and said first electrical potentials, or (d) obtaining one or more iterative EIT solutions to an inverse problem for localizing head tissues undergoing changes in impedance posed by said first set of currents and said first electrical potentials, and constraining one or more of said EIT solutions by said magnetic resonance image.