Identifying auditory attention with ear-EEG: cEEGrid versus high-density cap-EEG comparison

Bleichner, Martin G.; Mirkovic, Bojana; Debener, Stefan

doi:10.1088/1741-2560/13/6/066004

Cited by 105 publications

(140 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Activation values for all vertices but the ones in the respective source region were set to zero, whereas for the vertices in a given source region we assumed a biphasic cortical activation pattern. EEG electrode positions used were based on two previous studies (Bleichner et al, 2016; Mirkovic et al, 2016), comprising 84 scalp channels arranged in an equidistant cap and 18 channels from two cEEGrids.…”

Section: Ceegrid Sensitivity—modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By directly comparing simultaneously acquired scalp-EEG and ear-EEG signals, several independent laboratories have shown that ear-EEG can capture brain signals that are closely related to those recorded with scalp-EEG (Mikkelsen et al, 2015; Mirkovic et al, 2015; Bleichner et al, 2016; Zibrandtsen et al, 2016). In contrast to the classical EEG cap, ear-EEG sensors can be worn comfortably and are not more noticeable than hearing-aids or (in-ear) headphones.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Concealed, Unobtrusive Ear-Centered EEG Acquisition: cEEGrids for Transparent EEG

Bleichner

Debener

2017

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Electroencephalography (EEG) is an important clinical tool and frequently used to study the brain-behavior relationship in humans noninvasively. Traditionally, EEG signals are recorded by positioning electrodes on the scalp and keeping them in place with glue, rubber bands, or elastic caps. This setup provides good coverage of the head, but is impractical for EEG acquisition in natural daily-life situations. Here, we propose the transparent EEG concept. Transparent EEG aims for motion tolerant, highly portable, unobtrusive, and near invisible data acquisition with minimum disturbance of a user's daily activities. In recent years several ear-centered EEG solutions that are compatible with the transparent EEG concept have been presented. We discuss work showing that miniature electrodes placed in and around the human ear are a feasible solution, as they are sensitive enough to pick up electrical signals stemming from various brain and non-brain sources. We also describe the cEEGrid flex-printed sensor array, which enables unobtrusive multi-channel EEG acquisition from around the ear. In a number of validation studies we found that the cEEGrid enables the recording of meaningful continuous EEG, event-related potentials and neural oscillations. Here, we explain the rationale underlying the cEEGrid ear-EEG solution, present possible use cases and identify open issues that need to be solved on the way toward transparent EEG.

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Section: Ceegrid Sensitivity—modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concealed, Unobtrusive Ear-Centered EEG Acquisition: cEEGrids for Transparent EEG

Bleichner

Debener

2017

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

Self Cite

164

193

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“…Our findings indicate that there is an optimal window-size for decoding-accuracy: shorter window sizes produce r -values that are too noisy, and longer window sizes prohibit the rapid detection of switches in attention. This problem is particularly important when using neural signals with a lower signal to noise ratio (such as around the ear [23], or in ear EEG [28]). It is possible that more elaborate decoding algorithms can be used to speed up decoding and provide a better trade-off between decoding-accuracy and transition-time [27].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural decoding of attentional selection in multi-speaker environments without access to clean sources

et al. 2017

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Objective People who suffer from hearing impairments can find it difficult to follow a conversation in a multi-speaker environment. Current hearing aids can suppress background noise; however, there is little that can be done to help a user attend to a single conversation amongst many without knowing which speaker the user is attending to. Cognitively controlled hearing aids that use auditory attention decoding (AAD) methods are the next step in offering help. Translating the successes in AAD research to real-world applications poses a number of challenges, including the lack of access to the clean sound sources in the environment with which to compare with the neural signals. We propose a novel framework that combines single-channel speech separation algorithms with AAD. Approach We present an end-to-end system that (1) receives a single audio channel containing a mixture of speakers that is heard by a listener along with the listener’s neural signals, (2) automatically separates the individual speakers in the mixture, (3) determines the attended speaker, and (4) amplifies the attended speaker’s voice to assist the listener. Main results Using invasive electrophysiology recordings, we identified the regions of the auditory cortex that contribute to AAD. Given appropriate electrode locations, our system is able to decode the attention of subjects and amplify the attended speaker using only the mixed audio. Our quality assessment of the modified audio demonstrates a significant improvement in both subjective and objective speech quality measures. Significance Our novel framework for AAD bridges the gap between the most recent advancements in speech processing technologies and speech prosthesis research and moves us closer to the development of cognitively controlled hearable devices for the hearing impaired.

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“…For comparison, the electrodes on the cEEGrid, developed by Debener et al [32], are located around the ear in approximately the same plane, but with larger electrode distances, compared to ear-EEG. For some paradigms it could be necessary to locate electrodes both in and around the ear to span a 3D space, and also obtain larger electrode distances to increase the amplitude of the measured ear-EEG [19]. Figure 6.4 and 6.5 generally show big differences in the potential maps for the ears, for the different orientations and locations of dipoles.…”

Section: Mapping Cortical Sources To the Earmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…20 Section 3.2 Description of the reference configurations for the real-life artifact recordings have been added. 63 Bibliography Errors in reference [19] has been corrected.…”

Section: Correctionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and Characterization of Ear-EEG for Real-Life Brain-Monitoring

Kappel¹

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Functional brain monitoring methods for neuroscience and medical diagnostics have until recently been limited to laboratory settings. However, there is a great potential for studying the human brain in the everyday life, with measurements performed in more realistic real-life settings. Electroencephalography (EEG) can be measured in real-life using wearable EEG equipment. Current wearable EEG devices are typically based on scalp electrodes, causing the devices to be visible and often uncomfortable to wear for long-term recordings. Ear-EEG is a method where EEG is recorded from electrodes placed in the ear. The Ear-EEG supports non-invasive longterm recordings of EEG in real-life in a discreet way. This Ph.D. project concerns the characterization and development of ear-EEG for real-life brain-monitoring. This was addressed through characterization of physiological artifacts in real-life settings, development and characterization of dry-contact electrodes for real-life ear-EEG acquisition, measurements of ear-EEG in real-life, and development of a method for mapping cortical sources to the ear. Characterization of physiological artifacts showed a similar artifact level for recordings from ear electrodes and temporal lobe scalp electrodes. Dry-contact electrodes and flexible earpieces were developed to increase the comfort and user-friendliness of the ear-EEG. In addition, electronic instrumentation was developed to allow implementation in a hearing-aid-sized ear-EEG device. Ear-EEG measurements performed in real-life settings with the drycontact electrodes, were comparable to temporal lobe scalp EEG, when referenced to a Cz scalp electrode. However, the recordings showed that further development of the earpieces and electrodes are needed to obtain a satisfying recording quality, when the reference is located close to or in the ear. Mapping of the electric fields from well-defined cortical sources to the ear, showed good agreement with previous ear-EEG studies and has the potential to provide valuable information for future development of the ear-EEG method. The Ph.D. project showed that ear-EEG measurements can be performed in real-life, with dry-contact electrodes. The brain processes studied, were established with comparable clarity on recordings from temporal lobe scalp and ear electrodes. With further development of the earpieces, electrodes, and electronic instrumentation, it appears to be realistic to implement ear-EEG into unobtrusive and user-friendly devices for monitoring of human brain processes in real-life. i ResuméFunktionelle målemetoder, som anvendes til hjerneforskning og medicinsk diagnostik, har indtil for nylig vaeret begraenset til laboratorier. Der er imidlertid et stort potentiale for at foretage hjerneforskning i hverdagen, hvor målinger kan foretages i mere realistiske omgivelser. Elektroencefalografi (EEG) kan måles i hverdagen vha. baerbart EEG udstyr. Nuvaerende baerbare EEG systemer er typisk baseret på hovedbundselektroder. Systemerne er derfor synlige og ofte ubehagelige at b...

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Identifying auditory attention with ear-EEG: cEEGrid versus high-density cap-EEG comparison

Cited by 105 publications

References 32 publications

Concealed, Unobtrusive Ear-Centered EEG Acquisition: cEEGrids for Transparent EEG

Concealed, Unobtrusive Ear-Centered EEG Acquisition: cEEGrids for Transparent EEG

Neural decoding of attentional selection in multi-speaker environments without access to clean sources

Development and Characterization of Ear-EEG for Real-Life Brain-Monitoring

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