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 Emotiv 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 (1,000 Hz) and 100 deviant (1,200 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, N2, and P3 ERP peaks (r = .82 to .95) in both passive and active conditions, and less so, though still strong, for mismatch negativity ERP component (MMN; r = .67 to .74). 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) and their MMN ERP component.

Acquiring research‐grade ERPs on a shoestring budget: A comparison of a modified Emotiv and commercial SynAmps EEG system

“…Recent times have seen the development and commercialization of a number of mobile, wireless EEG systems, such as the EPOC/EPOC+ systems from Emotiv Inc. These devices were initially developed as brain‐computer interface devices, but have gained interest to researchers given their affordability and potential to perform EEG research outside of the laboratory (e.g., Badcock et al, ; Duvinage et al, ; Rogers, Johnstone, Aminov, Donnelly, & Wilson, ).…”

“…It is an empirical question as to whether low‐cost wireless EEG systems can acquire data that are of sufficient quality to permit the study of individual and group differences with respect to cognitive and neural functioning. To date, the Emotiv EPOC wireless EEG system has received the most empirical attention (e.g., Badcock et al, ; de Lissa, Sörensen, Badcock, Thie, & McArthur, ; Duvinage et al, ). This system uses an active CMS/DRL (common mode sense/driven right leg) reference system and comprises 14 electrodes that are affixed to a Bluetooth transmitter, allowing EEG data acquisition without the need for a physical connection to an amplifier.…”

“…In this scale, the color green indicates a supposed appropriate level of contact between an electrode and scalp, and the colors yellow, orange, red, and black indicate progressively poorer levels of contact. Past research has established that the green level of this key represents impedances less than 220 kΩ (Badcock et al, ).…”

“…The extent that the Emotiv system can capture auditory and visual ERP components has been examined in several studies (e.g., Badcock et al, ; de Lissa et al, ; Debener, Minow, Emkes, Gandras, & Vos, ; Duvinage et al, ; Stytsenko, Jablonskis, & Prahm, ; Weed, Kratschmer, & Pedersen, ). Duvinage et al () compared the reliability of the Emotiv system with respect to detecting the P300 evoked potential compared to a research‐grade, wired ANT Neuro‐EEG system.…”

Individual Differences in the Order/Chaos Balance of the Brain Self-Organization

“…EEG signal was recorded with the brain-interface device Emotiv Epoc® [38,39] at 128 Hz sample rate during 2 min performing the required task with the eyes closed.…”