What Frankenstein Can Teach Us About EEG Monitoring
Victor Frankenstein's biggest mistake was not the lightning. It was bringing a brain to life and then walking away from it.
This Halloween, the internet's favourite line is "I want to fix him." At Neuroelectrics, we took it literally. If Victor had come to us before that stormy night, what would we have done differently? The answer says a lot about what good EEG monitoring looks like today.
A quick note for the purists: Frankenstein is the scientist, not the creature. Mary Shelley never gave the creature a name. But since the whole world calls him Frankenstein, we will too, just this once.
Electricity and the Brain: Where Mary Shelley Found Her Spark
Frankenstein was not pure fantasy. Mary Shelley wrote it in 1816 and published it in 1818, at a time when scientists were openly asking whether electricity was the force behind life itself.
In the 1780s, Luigi Galvani made dissected frog legs twitch with electrical currents. His nephew, Giovanni Aldini, went further. In 1803, he applied current to the body of an executed man at London's Royal College of Surgeons, and spectators watched its face and limbs move. In her 1831 introduction to the novel, Shelley recalled that galvanism was among the ideas discussed on the nights the story took shape.
What those early experimenters lacked was a way to listen. They could push electricity into the body, but they could not read the electrical activity the brain produces on its own. That came over a century later: on 6 July 1924, psychiatrist Hans Berger recorded the first human EEG in Jena, Germany, starting the evolution of EEG into the clinical tool it is today. However, it is worth noting that Polish physiologist Adolf Beck in Kraków had already recorded spontaneous electrical activity in animal brains as early as 1890.
EEG Monitoring: Listening Before the Lightning
Victor never checked what was happening inside the brain he built. He assembled it from different sources, sent a storm through it, and hoped for the best. No neurologist would accept that plan.
The first step in modern brain care is the opposite: measure before you act. EEG monitoring is the recording of the brain's electrical activity through electrodes placed on the scalp, either in a single session or continuously over hours. It shows how different regions communicate, whether rhythms look typical, and whether there is abnormal activity such as seizures. For a brain stitched together from multiple donors, that baseline would be essential.
So in our version of the story, the first thing the creature meets is not a thunderbolt. It is an Enobio headcap.
Clinical EEG in the Hospital: From the Castle to the Ward
Victor worked alone in a candlelit room. Today, the creature would be in a hospital, surrounded by a care team that can act on what the EEG shows.
This matters because some of the most important brain events are invisible from the outside. Nonconvulsive seizures, for example, can only be detected with EEG. A patient may look calm while their brain is in distress. In emergency departments and intensive care units, getting EEG onto a patient quickly can change how they are treated.
That is why speed and simplicity count. Enobio is a wireless EEG system with options from 8 to 32 channels, designed for fast setup and comfortable recording. Enobio Dx is FDA-cleared, and the Enobio 8, 20, and 32 systems are CE-marked as Class IIa medical devices. No storm required, and no castle either.
Continuous EEG Monitoring: The Follow-Up Victor Never Did
The moment the creature opened his eyes, Victor ran. Everything that follows in the novel, the loneliness, the anger, the tragedy, grows from that single act of abandonment.
Brain health is not a one-time event. Conditions change, treatments need adjusting, and recovery takes time. Repeated and longer-term EEG monitoring lets clinicians see how a patient's brain activity evolves, instead of relying on a single snapshot. Read more about EEG in the emergency room and how it supports diagnosis and follow-up.
In our story, the creature leaves the hospital with a plan and a team that stays in touch. He is no longer an experiment. He is a patient, and he is cared for.
Neurotechnology with Care: How We Would Fix Him
The real lesson of Frankenstein is not "don't use electricity." It is that technology without care creates monsters. Victor had ambition and tools, but no patience, no measurement, and no follow-through.
Modern neurotechnology works best when it sits inside good care: listen to the brain first, act with the right team, and keep watching over time. That is how you fix him.
Want to see how Enobio fits into your clinical or research workflow? Get in touch with our team.
EEG Monitoring FAQ: Questions Victor Should Have Asked
What is EEG monitoring?
EEG monitoring is the recording of the brain's electrical activity through electrodes placed on the scalp. It can be a short session or continuous recording over hours. Clinicians use it to see how brain regions communicate and to detect abnormal activity such as seizures.
Why is EEG used in the emergency department?
EEG can reveal seizures that show no visible signs. Nonconvulsive status epilepticus is a frequent, treatable, and under-diagnosed condition that can cause neurological injury, which is why experts argue EEG should be available in the emergency department (International Journal of Emergency Medicine).
What is a nonconvulsive seizure?
A nonconvulsive seizure is abnormal electrical activity in the brain without the shaking most people associate with seizures. Because there are no obvious physical signs, it can only be detected with EEG. A 2013 study of routine EEG in the emergency department found nonconvulsive seizures in 5% of patients with altered mental status (ACEP Now).
Who recorded the first human EEG?
German psychiatrist Hans Berger recorded the first human EEG on 6 July 1924 in Jena, Germany, and published his findings in 1929 (Clinical Neurophysiology).
What inspired Frankenstein?
Mary Shelley was inspired partly by galvanism, the early science of using electricity to make muscles and nerves respond. She described this influence in the introduction to the 1831 edition of the novel.
References
Rossini PM, Cole J, Paulus W, Ziemann U, Chen R. 1924–2024: First centennial of EEG. Clinical Neurophysiology, 2025; 170: 132–135.
The new wave: time to bring EEG to the emergency department. International Journal of Emergency Medicine.
The current status of continuous seizure management. ACEP Now.
Shelley M. Frankenstein, 1831 edition with the author's introduction. Project Gutenberg.
Galvanising George Foster, 1803. University of Melbourne Library.
Professor Aldini's Strange Antics. McGill Office for Science and Society.
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