The International QEEG Certification exam has evolved over several years.  We are now on the seventh edition.  In the beginning, questions on artifacts were at the beginning of the exam in one section.  The board felt that identifying artifacts would be a good way to start the exam as most people could do this without too much trouble.

We were wrong! Applicants not only had difficulty identifying artifacts, but many applicants also experienced anxiety which sometimes disrupted the rest of the test taking.  Fortunately, this is no longer the case.  Feedback to the mentors and didactic course providers helped to remedy the problem.

The ability to identify artifacts is crucial.  Brain maps are averages of metrics like power and coherence.  The average metrics can be misleading.  For example, without inspection of the raw data, it would be difficult to discern the difference between muscle tension artifact and high spindling Beta.  Increased Delta could be indicative of small movement artifact.  Epics of diffuse high amplitude slowing might totally be missed.  In other words, the results of the brain map must be interpreted in context of the raw data.

I would encourage people to become true “experts” in the examination of raw data by learning to identify artifacts, and, to learn to examine and interpret raw data with different montages to allow a better understanding of the resulting brain map.

B.  Robert Crago Ph.D., IQCB QEEG-DL & Board Member

https://qeegcertificationboard.org/iqcb-exam

Quality assurance is the point of the IQCB. With the advent of high quality, lower cost recording equipment, the availability of normative EEG databases, and many demonstrations that the electrical rhythms of the brain are functionally significant, many clinicians desire to use the technology. Increasing numbers of clinicians are now using quantitative EEG analyses to help understand the causes of patient’s symptoms and to determine the most useful training targets for neurofeedback.

Quantitative EEG was historically done in university research laboratory settings by highly trained EEG technicians or graduate students, supervised by MDs and PhDs trained in making and interpreting high quality EEG recordings. For example, I did my graduate research on EEG and ERP concomitants of conscious states, supervised by senior researchers at UC Santa Barbara, UCSD and UCLA. The question is, how do people who don’t have an intensive background in psychophysiology and electrophysiology become competent enough to use quantitative EEG methods to support clinical interventions?

The answer is the certification process of the IQCB. We can’t give you 30 years of experience, but we can certify that you’ve got the basic training to make competent EEG recordings and interpretations of the results that relate raw EEG results and quantitative statistical findings to clinical presentations.

John K. Nash, PhD, Licensed Psychologist, IQCB Diplomate (L) and Board Member