EEG is the name commonly used for electroencephalography. An EEG is an important test for diagnosing epilepsy because it records the electrical activity of the brain.

• It is safe and painless.
• Electrodes (small, metal, cup-shaped disks) are attached to your scalp and connected by wires to an electrical box. (The wires can only record electrical activity; they do not deliver any electrical current to your scalp.) The box in turn is connected to an EEG machine.
• The EEG machine records your brain's electrical activity as a series of squiggles called traces. Each trace corresponds to a different region of the brain.