Project Overview

EEG is a non-invasive, inexpensive, and efficient tool for measuring electrical signals in the brain. The EEGNet platform will provide a standardized, open repository of EEG data for the investigation of biomarkers of brain disorders that manifest themselves during the early years of life, disorders such as autism.

EEGNet will bring together EEG scientists from across Canada and internationally. They will work to improve our ability to combine EEG data from different laboratories by harmonizing the data formats and analytic tools we all use. We will make use of an existing Brain Canada funded platform, the Canadian Open Neuroscience Platform (CONP), to share EEG data across the country. CONP provides broad generic support for neuroscience data-sharing but EEGNet will focus specifically upon EEG data at a much deeper level in terms of improved data analysis tools and studies of patient cohorts with EEG. These tools will be enhanced to allow earlier detection of early EEG abnormalities in (i) infant or child-onset developmental disorders, (ii) psychiatric or behavioural disorders (depression, risk-taking behaviour), (iii) neurodegenerative diseases, as well as the study of states of consciousness (sleep, wakefulness, coma, anaesthesia).

Many EEGNet researchers also form part of the Global Brain Consortium (GBC) as well as CONP. GBC is focussed on EEG-mediated international neuroscience collaboration. It includes partners from China, the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and Latin America. A primary GBC focus is population screening in Low-and Middle Income Countries. As part of GBC, we seek to place Canada at the centre of an international network using EEG to investigate brain health disorders emerging in early childhood or adolescence in under-served populations around the world.

Principal Investigator

Alan Evans , Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University

Team Members

Mayada Elsabbagh, McGill University

Yves De Koninck, Université Laval

Philippe Albouy, Université Laval

Shirley Fecteau, Université Laval

Isabelle Blanchette, Université Laval

Célyne Bastien, Université Laval

Christophe Grova, Concordia University

Anne Gallagher, Université de Montréal

Sarah Lippé, Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Centre

Sid Segalowitz, Brock University

Adrian Owen, University of Western Ontario

Ingrid Johnsrude, University of Western Ontario

Stefanie Blain-Moraes, McGill University

Faranak Farzan, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Jorge Bosch Bayard, McGill University

Signe Bray, University of Calgary

Ashley Harris, University of Calgary

Sean Hill, University of Toronto

Jean Gotman, McGill University

Birgit Frauscher, McGill University

Stefon Van Noordt, McGill University

Erin Panda, Brock University

Ayda Tekok-Kilic, Brock University

Christine Lackner, Mount St. Vincent University

Karen Campbell, Brock University

Teena Willoughby, Brock University

Partners and Donors

McGill University

CIUSSS-CN (CERVO Brain Research Centre)

Brock University