Photically Activated Electroencephalogram: Research Tool in Psychiatry Preliminary Observations

-THOUGH electroencephalography had its inception in the research laboratory of a psychiatrist (Hans Berger), its contributions to date have been greatest in the field of clini-cal neurology. The relatively unsatisfactory results obtained from electroencephalographic studies when used as a psychiatric research tool may be due in part to the present practice of studying the brain wave patterns of resting patients. Since psychiatry is concerned with abnormalities in behavior resulting from inner or outer stimuli, it would seem that, in order to approach more logically the study of neural mechanisms which underlie pathologic be-havior, the electroencephalogram should be recorded while the patient is subject to a con-trolled experimental stimulus. The term "func-tional electroencephalography " has been sug-gested for this type of investigation.21 The sensitivity of the brain to flickering light was noted clinically by Gowers in 1885 and was demonstrated in the laboratory by Adrian in 1934. Other studies followed, and recently, papers by the Walters and by Gas-taut12 have given new impetus to the clinical use of intermittent light, particularly as a means of producing seizures for diagnostic purposes. Observation that patients so stimu-lated respond with various subjective sensa-tions prompted our interest in this field. The use of this technique in psychiatric inves-tigation has been implicitly reported by the Walters, who noted that personality factors This study was supported in part by a researc