Validation of the Emotiv EPOC^®EEG gaming system for measuring research quality auditory ERPs

Abstract

Background. Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) have proved useful in investigating the role of auditory processing in cognitive disorders such as developmental dyslexia, specific language impairment (SLI), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia, and autism. However, laboratory recordings of auditory ERPs can be lengthy, uncomfortable, or threatening for some participants – particularly children. Recently, a commercial gaming electroencephalography (EEG) system has been developed that is portable, inexpensive, and easy to set up. In this study we tested if auditory ERPs measured using a gaming EEG system (Emotiv EPOC®, ) were equivalent to those measured by a widely-used, laboratory-based, research EEG system (Neuroscan).Methods. We simultaneously recorded EEGs with the research and gaming EEG systems, whilst presenting 21 adults with 566 standard (1000 Hz) and 100 deviant (1200 Hz) tones under passive (non-attended) and active (attended) conditions. The onset of each tone was marked in the EEGs using a parallel port pulse (Neuroscan) or a stimulus-generated electrical pulse injected into the O1 and O2 channels (Emotiv EPOC®). These markers were used to calculate research and gaming EEG system late auditory ERPs (P1, N1, P2, N2, and P3 peaks) and the mismatch negativity (MMN) in active and passive listening conditions for each participant.Results. Analyses were restricted to frontal sites as these are most commonly reported in auditory ERP research. Intra-class correlations (ICCs) indicated that the morphology of the research and gaming EEG system late auditory ERP waveforms were similar across all participants, but that the research and gaming EEG system MMN waveforms were only similar for participants with non-noisy MMN waveforms (N = 11 out of 21). Peak amplitude and latency measures revealed no significant differences between the size or the timing of the auditory P1, N1, P2, N2, P3, and MMN peaks.Conclusions. Our findings suggest that the gaming EEG system may prove a valid alternative to laboratory ERP systems for recording reliable late auditory ERPs (P1, N1, P2, N2, and the P3) over the frontal cortices. In the future, the gaming EEG system may also prove useful for measuring less reliable ERPs, such as the MMN, if the reliability of such ERPs can be boosted to the same level as late auditory ERPs.

The Aging Urban Brain: Analyzing Outdoor Physical Activity Using the Emotiv Affectiv Suite in Older People

“…Laboratory data using a mobile electroencephalography (EEG) headset (Emotiv EPOC+; validated for both laboratory and outdoor settings [17,18]) showed outputs that corresponded with self-reported measures on attractiveness, willingness to visit, valence and arousal of static images of landscapes or urban scenes [19]. This study used data from the Affectiv Suite, Emotiv proprietary software, which analyzes EEG from distinct brain activity patterns and allocates a label defining an emotional parameter ('frustration', 'excitement', 'engagement', 'meditation', 'long term excitement').…”

A marker circuit to enable recording of auditory evoked potential using a wireless EEG system (EPOC) and a portable computer

“…The marker circuit has been proven to successfully record auditory evoked potentials on human subjects [4]. The audio stimuli were based on the ramp tone.…”

“…An auditory evoked potential study using this circuit has been conducted by Badcock et al [4] where the EPOC accompanied by the marker circuit was validated against Neuroscan. Section II describes the circuit to convert the audio signal from the headphone output to a pulse that can be fed to a pair of the EEG channels and the methods to verify the circuit.…”

A low-cost auditory multi-class brain-computer interface based on pitch, spatial and timbre cues

“…Badcock et al. [1] simultaneously recorded, using research and Emotiv Epoc devices, the EEG of 21 subjects while they were presented with 566 standard (1000 Hz) and 100 deviant (1200 Hz) tones under passive and active conditions. For each subject, they calculated auditory ERPs (P1, N1, P2, N2, and P300 peaks) as well as mismatch negativity (MMN) in both active and passive listening conditions.…”

“…They are mainly marketed as gaming devices and provide a limited solution to the expensive equipment problems described above: they are wirelessly connected to an ordinary computer, 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 they require a short set-up time to adjust the electrodes to the user's scalp, and they do not require conductive gel. Recent research on evaluating the reliability of some of these low-cost EEG devices for research purposes has suggested that they are reliable for measuring visual and auditory evoked potentials [Duvinage, 2013;Debener, 2012;Badcock, 2013].…”