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To clarify the question, if you had a chip inside your brain that is sending bytes via wi-fii, bluethoot or other kind of waves, would the encephalogram detect anomalous activity?

Are the waves amplitude of normal brain electromagnetic activity very different from what a chip sends?

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    $\begingroup$ You can easily look up their wavelengths and conclude they are vastly different. $\endgroup$
    – AliceD ♦
    Commented May 14, 2020 at 19:39
  • $\begingroup$ @AliceD thanks, can you clarify how much different the waves are with a graph or so. Would the wavelengths be also very much high than eg an epileptic atack? $\endgroup$
    – user26002
    Commented May 17, 2020 at 8:47

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EEG is commonly band pass filtered in the range of 0.1-1000 Hz at the absolute widest; more often closer to 0.1-200 Hz, or even less. Hence, there is no need to sample at higher frequencies, which would make it harder to store and process the data, given this is the normal range of biological signals.

Bluetooth and wifi are in the high 100s MHz to GHz range, i.e., nowhere near the EEG wavelengths. In effect, these signals from cellphones, wireless routers, microwaves, etc., do not interfere with the EEG.

You might pick up lower frequency carrier artifacts, however, depending on the manner of transmission.

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    $\begingroup$ It's best practice to add some references to allow other users to background read on your material. I've edited the answer somewhat. Can you elaborate on that last sentence? $\endgroup$
    – AliceD ♦
    Commented May 18, 2020 at 9:13
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EEG electrodes are designed to record the electrical activity of the brain over the scalp. As @Bryan said the frequency of interest is usually less than 200 Hz, although it is possible to record up to 5KHz(e.g. BrainAmp). But we should keep in mind that even in the higher sampling frequencies, it is only recording the electrical potential over the scalp, while the communication devices you mentioned are using electromagnetic fields (Bluetooth and wifi) or radio frequencies (e.g RF modules) for communication, and seems irrelevant to compare these frequency ranges to the sampling rate of the recording device (apples and oranges).

However, any electronic device needs the power to run, and your device needs to be supplied with electrical source (i.e. batteries), and depending on how it is powered I think it would be possible to detected it with altered EEG on the electrodes above it. There exist passive implants that do not need external sources of energy to function, but they are not good enough to transfer data at the bitrates you mentioned. Bluetooth and wifi have a lot of power consumption and need batteries to function.

To sum up, it depends on how your device is powered, and if there is a source of electrical activity, it will alter the EEG and you can detect it, although, you might not be able to say on which frequency exactly is working on (is it Bluetooth, wifi, RF, etc. ?).

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