Human Brain Institute (HBI) Normative Database

The HBI normative database was built based upon the fundamental research at the Institute of the Human Brain Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, Russia. In addition, the database combined the experience and expertise from practitioners and researchers at:

• Praxis für Kind, Organisation und Entwicklung, Chur, Switzerland
• Norwegian University for Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway
• Centre of Neurotherapy in St. Petersburg, Russia
• Crossroads Institute in the USA
• Q-Pro Worldwide (USA, Switzerland, and Russia)

(Read more about the HBI database's history and research...)
 

The normative data includes 19-channel EEG recordings in the following groups:

• Children and adolescents of age 7-17 years old – 250 healthy subjects
• Adults of age 18-60 years old – 350 healthy subjects
• Elderly people (after age of 61) – 200 subjects

It also includes non-normative data recordings of:

• 300 ADHD children and adolescents
• Epilepsy
• OCD
• Addictions
• Depression
• Whiplash
• Learning Issues

(Inclusion/Exclusion criteria presume an uneventful peri-natal period, no head injury with cerebral symptoms, no history of neurological or psychiatric diseases, no convulsions, normal mental and physical development, average or better-than-average grades in school).

Recording Analysis Specifics

19-channel EEG was recorded in two resting conditions with eyes open (more than 3 minutes), eyes closed (more than 3 minutes), and four different task conditions, including two stimulus GO/NOGO task (20 minutes), arithmetic and reading tasks (both 20 minutes) and auditory task (15 Minutes).

Some procedures (such as artifact correction and spike detection) are automated to reduce the amount of time for pre-processing the data.  Two montages (global average and local average according to Lemos) are used to assess global and local features of EEG. Absolute amplitude and power spectra, averaged and two-channel coherence, wavelet-transformations, and ERPs are computed off-line and mapped into 2D representations or into 3D images using LORETA technology. Dipole approximation methods are provided in addition.

The computed characteristics are normalized (using log transformations). Mean values and standard deviations for separate age groups are obtained. Comparison with the database consists of computing z-scores – standardized measures of deviation of individual EEG parameters - from the normative data.

In addition, ERPs are subjected to independent component analysis. Using this methodology, separate components associated with distinctive psychological operations are extracted. Each component is characterized by time dynamics and topography. Spatial filters are built up on the basis of these topographies and enable the users to extract the amplitude of each component from the individual ERPs. Comparing these amplitudes with the normative data allows insights concerning different stages of information processing in the individual under assessment.

HBI Database Advantages

The advantages of the HBI database are:

• The use of 4 different task conditions in addition to eyes open and eyes closed conditions;
• The ability to extract independent components from ERPs associated with distinct psychological
• operations;
• Automated procedures of artifact correction;
• Automated spike detection;

The HBI database enables the user to not only visualize deviations from the norm, but also gives functional meaning to the extracted components in time and frequency domains. In other words, the HBI database provides not only numbers, but also the functional meaning to those numbers.

• Children and adolescents of age 7-17 years old – 250 healthy subjects
• Adults of age 18-60 years old – 350 healthy subjects
• Elderly people (after age of 61) – 200 subjects