Validation of the Emotiv EPOC EEG system for research quality auditory event-related potentials in children

Abstract

Background. Previous work has demonstrated that a commercial gaming electroencephalography (EEG) system, Emotiv EPOC, can be adjusted to provide valid auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) in adults that are comparable to ERPs recorded by a research-grade EEG system, Neuroscan. The aim of the current study was to determine if the same was true for children. Method. An adapted Emotive EPOC system and Neuroscan system were used to make simultaneous EEG recordings in nineteen 6- to 12-year-old children under “passive” and “active” listening conditions. In the passive condition, children were instructed to watch a silent DVD and ignore 566 standard (1000 Hz) and 100 deviant (1200 Hz) tones. In the active condition, they listened to the same stimuli, and were asked to count the number of ‘high’ (i.e. deviant) tones. Results. Intraclass correlations (ICCs) indicated that the ERP morphology recorded with the two systems was very similar for the P1, N1, P2, P2, and P3 ERP peaks (r = .78 to .95) in both passive and active conditions, but was poor for the mismatch negativity ERP component (MMN; r < .30). There were few differences between peak amplitude and latency estimates for the two systems. Conclusions. An adapted EPOC EEG system can be used to index children’s late auditory ERP peaks (i.e. P1, N1, P2, N2, P3) but not their MMN ERP component. Subjects: Psychiatry and Psychology Keywords: EEG, ERP, Emotiv EPOC, Validation, Mismatchnegativity, MMN, Intraclass correlation, Methods, Signal processing, Auditory odd-ball, Children

Consumer grade EEG devices: are they usable for control tasks?

“… Badcock et al (2015) assessed the validity of the Emotiv EPOC gaming EEG system as an auditory event-related potential (ERP) measurement tool in children. The results were validated by simultaneous measurement using a research-grade Neuroscan system and the EPOC system.…”

“…About 20% of subjects did not show strong enough motor-related mu-rhythm variations for effective asynchronous motor-imagery BCI, another 30% exhibit slow performance (<20 bits/min). Another study ( Badcock et al, 2015 ) claims to have achieved better results of using BCI with children than with adult people leading to speculation of whether aging related effects have influence over ability to use BCI effectively. The boundary between BCI literate and BCI illiterate also has not been defined conclusively.…”

Integrated Development Environment for EEG-Driven Cognitive-Neuropsychological Research

“…One of the most accessible EEG lines of products is commercialized by Emotive. The Emotive EPOC was shown to have better accuracy then the common alternatives for control task [42], and it is capable of registering auditory event-related potentials (ERPs), which are comparable to state-of-the-art EEG system [43]. Our IDE currently supports the entire EMOTIV line of products, including the EPOC, Insight and Flex.…”

Brain Monitoring Devices in Neuroscience Clinical Research: The Potential of Remote Monitoring Using Sensors, Wearables, and Mobile Devices

“…Only a small quantity of research has been reported to validate the reliability of these systems for event‐related brain potential (ERP) research . Research to date, however, has shown the promise of these techniques.…”

“…Research to date, however, has shown the promise of these techniques. A study using the Emotiv EPOC headband solution compared continuous EEG measurements using the portable headband and a research‐grade EEG device (Neuroscan v. 4.3), using an EEG electrode cap (EasyCap, Herrsching, Germany) fitted with 14 Ag‐AgCl electrodes . The Emotive EPOC EEG Headset samples the EEG signal at a rate of 120 samples per second from 14 different electrodes, and its firmware filters out artifacts outside the bandwidth range of 0.2–45 Hz.…”