Taking off the training wheels: Measuring auditory P3 during outdoor cycling using an active wet EEG system

Abstract

Mobile EEG allows the investigation of brain activity in increasingly complex environments. In this study, EEG equipment was adapted for use and transportation in a backpack while cycling. Participants performed an auditory oddball task while cycling outside and sitting in an isolated chamber inside the lab. Cycling increased EEG noise and marginally diminished alpha amplitude. However, this increased noise did not influence the ability to measure reliable event related potentials (ERP). The P3 was similar in topography, and morphology when outside on the bike, with a lower amplitude in the outside cycling condition. There was only a minor decrease in the statistical power to measure reliable ERP effects. Unexpectedly, when biking outside significantly decreased P2 and increased N1 amplitude were observed when evoked by both standards and targets compared with sitting in the lab. This may be due to attentional processes filtering the overlapping sounds between the tones used and similar environmental frequencies. This study established methods for mobile recording of ERP signals. Future directions include investigating auditory P2 filtering inside the laboratory.

The ecological cocktail party: Measuring brain activity during an auditory oddball task with background noise

“…In this study, we compared ERPs during an oddball task in four conditions: with background traffic sounds (outdoor sounds), background white noise (white noise), silent background with quiet tones (silent‐low), and silent background (silent). We were able to replicate the main findings of a previous study (Scanlon, Townsend, et al, ) in which an increased N1 and decreased P2 amplitude were observed while participants cycled outside. In particular, when we played a recording of outdoor sounds in the background while participants performed a headphone auditory oddball task, the N1 was increased and the P2 was decreased compared to the silent condition.…”

“…However, the modulations in the N1 and P2 were not observed when participants cycled on a stationary bike inside the lab (Scanlon, Sieben, et al, ). Additionally, Scanlon, Townsend, et al () found that alpha power was decreased while participants cycled outside, and previous work by Brandt, Jansen, and Carbonari () has shown that alpha power may be positively correlated with visual N1 and P2 amplitudes. However, most literature concerning the auditory N1 and P2 components point to these components being primarily affected by extraneous auditory factors, especially for a task in the auditory modality (Näätänen & Picton, ).…”

“…Similar to Zink et al (), we found a significantly reduced P3 during the mobile task of cycling. However, we were surprised to find a significantly decreased P2 and increased N1 while participants had been cycling outside (Scanlon, Townsend, Cormier, Kuziek, & Mathewson, ). Altogether, these studies show that, in comparison to nonmobile, quiet laboratory conditions, the P3 in an oddball task tends to be reduced during mobile tasks such as walking or cycling outside but not during stationary cycling inside, indicating that changes in the P3 were related to changes in the task (e.g., stationary vs. mobile).…”

“…The auditory P2 in particular was shown to decrease when irrelevant speech sounds were introduced to the background of a speech‐listening task (Getzman, Golob, & Wascher, ). Therefore, it appears that this change in the N1 and P2 components relates to auditory aspects of top‐down perceptual processing and attention that are altered when participants perform the same task in a rich and noisy environment (Scanlon, Townsend, et al, ).…”

Your brain on bikes: P3, MMN/N2b, and baseline noise while pedaling a stationary bike

“…This marginal effect warrants future study, and the effect of habituation could be teased apart by counterbalancing biking and rest conditions. For example, another study currently in preparation has participants performing the same oddball task while both sitting inside and cycling outside, with an equal number of participants starting in each condition to account for habituation effects (Scanlon, Townsend, Cormier, Kuziek, & Mathewson, ).…”