Standardization of electroencephalography for multi-site, multi-platform and multi-investigator studies: insights from the canadian biomarker integration network in depression

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 7473 - 11
• Main Authors: Farzan, Faranak, Atluri, Sravya, Frehlich, Matthew, Dhami, Prabhjot, Kleffner, Killian, Price, Rae, Lam, Raymond W., Frey, Benicio N., Milev, Roumen, Ravindran, Arun, McAndrews, Mary Pat, Wong, Willy, Blumberger, Daniel, Daskalakis, Zafiris J., Vila-Rodriguez, Fidel, Alonso, Esther, Brenner, Colleen A., Liotti, Mario, Dharsee, Moyez, Arnott, Stephen R., Evans, Kenneth R., Rotzinger, Susan, Kennedy, Sidney H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 07.08.2017; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/378/1689/1414; 631/443/376; Access to Information; Antidepressive Agents - therapeutic use; Aripiprazole - therapeutic use; Brain; Brain mapping; Brain Mapping - standards; Canada; Citalopram - therapeutic use; Data collection; Data Curation - standards; Data processing; Depressive Disorder - drug therapy; EEG; Electroencephalography; Electroencephalography - standards; Guidelines as Topic; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Informatics; Integration; Medical Informatics Computing - standards; Mental depression; multidisciplinary; Problem Solving; Research Design - standards; Research Personnel; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Shelf life; Standardization; Studies; Treatment Outcome; Canada
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-07613-x

Subsequent to global initiatives in mapping the human brain and investigations of neurobiological markers for brain disorders, the number of multi-site studies involving the collection and sharing of large volumes of brain data, including electroencephalography (EEG), has been increasing. Among the complexities of conducting multi-site studies and increasing the shelf life of biological data beyond the original study are timely standardization and documentation of relevant study parameters. We present the insights gained and guidelines established within the EEG working group of the Canadian Biomarker Integration Network in Depression (CAN-BIND). CAN-BIND is a multi-site, multi-investigator, and multi-project network supported by the Ontario Brain Institute with access to Brain-CODE, an informatics platform that hosts a multitude of biological data across a growing list of brain pathologies. We describe our approaches and insights on documenting and standardizing parameters across the study design, data collection, monitoring, analysis, integration, knowledge-translation, and data archiving phases of CAN-BIND projects. We introduce a custom-built EEG toolbox to track data preprocessing with open-access for the scientific community. We also evaluate the impact of variation in equipment setup on the accuracy of acquired data. Collectively, this work is intended to inspire establishing comprehensive and standardized guidelines for multi-site studies.