A Higher-order BEM Discretization Scheme for the EEG Forward Problem

The electroencephalographic (EEG) imaging requires the analysis of the EEG forward problem that can be achieved using the boundary element method (BEM). Among different BEM discretization approaches, higher-order schemes are preferred due to their better solution accuracy. Conventional higher-order discretization schemes use curved patches as the boundary elements and isoparametric methods for the electric potential interpolation. However, the order of the interpolation depends on that of the curved patches, i.e., one needs to regenerate the mesh of the boundaries to use higher-order interpolation functions, which is not convenient in practical. In this article, we propose a novel higher-order BEM discretization scheme for the EEG forward problem. The order of the interpolation of the proposed scheme is independent from that of the curved patches, which is more convenient than the conventional schemes. A numerical example is presented to verify the accuracy and flexibility of the proposed scheme.