What you need

Recording equipment:

Amplifier with power supply
Cap(s)
Data acquisition PC with ASA dongle
Fibre Optic Cable (connects PC to amplifier)
Separate leads for EOGs or mastoids (optional)
Trigger cable to connect stimulus delivery computer to amplifier (if analysing ERPs)

Disposable supplies:

Conductive gel
Syringes and blunt needle tips
Alcohol swabs for cleaning skin before placing EOGs
Cotton buds (optional - for gently abrading the scalp)
Tape or disposable electrodes (if using separate leads for EOGs or mastoids)

Cleaning equipment:

Toothbrush
Water pick
Bucket or sink for washing the cap

For participants (optional):

Towels
Shampoo
Hair dryer

Where to find it

WaveGuard Caps: http://www.ant-neuro.com/products/waveguard

EEG gel (OneStep Cleargel), syringes, blunts, and cotton buds: http://www.eeg-gel.de/bestellung.php

Pre-gelled disposable electrodes (for EOG recordings): http://www.intermedicaldirect.com/products/ECG/ECG+Electrodes/Eurotrode+Disposable+ECG+Electrodes%2C+Foam%2C+Pre-Gelled+%28Packs+of+60%29/1642427401

Surgical tape (for securing EOGs): http://www.chemistdirect.co.uk/3m-micropore-surgical-tape_1_164320.html?utm_source=Google%2BProducts&utm_medium=Google%2BProducts&utm_campaign=Google%2BProducts

Water pick (for cleaning): http://www.boots.com/en/Waterpik-WP250-Nano-Water-Flosser_1163214

Data Collection Procedures and Cleaning

The University of York Psychology Department’s EEG amplifiers were purchased from ANT Neuro (http://www.ant-neuro.com/) and work with the ANT Neuro WaveGuard caps (http://www.ant-neuro.com/products/waveguard). When using the WaveGuard caps, you need to first find the appropriate cap size for the participant’s head, and then place at least one electrode (usually FPz or Cz) in the correct location.

To determine the participant’s cap size, measure the head circumference in cm by placing a tape measure around the widest part of the head (usually across the forehead just above the eyebrows, above the ears and across the widest part of the back of the skull). Use the participant’s head circumference to select the appropriate WaveGuard cap using the chart below.

WaveGuard Cap sizes:

To place the FPz electrode, measure the distance in cm from the participant’s nasion (indentation where the top of the nose meets the forehead) to inion (indentation where the back of the skull meets the top of the neck), and then mark 10% of that value above the nasion on the forehead. The distance from nasion to inion is usually around 35-40 cm, so FPz will usually be placed around 3.5-4 cm above the nasion. This will be the Y-coordinate of the FPz location on the forehead. The FPz electrode should be placed in the center of the forehead, directly in line with the nose.

There are 2 showers located in the Psychology Department where participants can wash their hair after an experiment. The first is located on the first floor of A-block and the second on the top floor of C-block.

Using ASA

The ASA software is already installed on the recording PCs that accompany each amplifier. The software is used for recording EEG data. For updates to the ASA software, check http://www.ant-neuro.com/products/asa/download-asa.

ASA can only be accessed from PCs that have the ASA dongle (i.e. the recording PCs). Although, a free trial is available from the website (follow the link above).

If you have any problems with ASA, feel free to use their support forum and help pages: http://ant.ipbhost.com/index.php. Note that you will have to register (free) and log in to access the ASA support pages.

To begin collecting data using ASA, you will need to set up a recording montage. The montage contains all of the information about your EEG setup such as the number and names/locations of channels, the type of reference used, and the recording of any auxiliary electrodes such as EOGs. The recording montage also allows you to setup an online filter of the data and control the display colors of the channels during recording. See the ASA manual for more information on setting up a recording montage.

ASA can be used for some simple analyses of EEG data. All of the processing and analysis steps are included in the graphical user interface (GUI), making it easy to use for demonstrations and for people with little scripting experience. However, we recommend that you export your data into a different programme (e.g. MATLAB) for analysis, since ASA is not suitable for more sophisticated analyses and it can only be accessed via the recording PCs. Many of these more sophisticated analysis tools also have well-developed GUIs, Wikis, Tutorials and support forums. For more information on analysis software, see the ‘Analysis Software’ section below.

Introductory Information

Books

Luck, S. (2005). An Introduction to the Event-Related Potential Technique (Cognitive Neuroscience). MIT Press. [The ECR forum currently have copies of this book in the ECR library].

Handy, T. C. (2004). Event-Related Potentials: A Methods Handbook. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Links

MRC Introduction: http://imaging.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/meg/IntroEEGMEG

ECR EEG Workshop 2013 Presentations

On 25th June 2013, the ECR forum held an introductory EEG workshop. The workshop consisted of a symposium of talks followed by a live practical demonstration. The speakers have kindly agreed to allow their powerpoint presentations to be available here on the EEG Wiki. The presentations can be downloaded below.

An Introduction to EEG and Data Acquisition (Becky Gilbert) (pdf)

Using EEG for Recording Sleep (Elaine Tham) (pdf)

An Introduction to Event-Related Potentials (Alex Kirkham) (pdf)

Recording EEG from Children (Emma Holmes) (pdf)

Detailed Resources

Books

Nunez, P. L., & Srinivasan, R. (2006). Electric Fields of the Brain: The Neurophysics of EEG. Oxford University Press. [Contains information about the neural basis of EEG signals and some background for frequency analysis].

Handy, T. C. (2009). Brain Signal Analysis: Advances in Neuroelectric and Neuromagnetic Methods (p. 272). The MIT Press.

Journal Articles

Makeig, S., Debener, S., Onton, J., & Delorme, A. (2004). Mining event-related brain dynamics. Trends in cognitive sciences, 8(5), 204–10.

Keil, A., Debener, S., Gratton, G., Junghöfer, M., Kappenman, E. S., Luck, S. J., Luu, P., Miller, G. A. and Yee, C. M. (2013), Committee report: Publication guidelines and recommendations for studies using electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography. Psychophysiology. doi: 10.1111/psyp.12147 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/psyp.12147/full

Web Pages

SPM Course [Provides an introduction to different analysis techniques]: http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/spm/course/slides13-meeg/

SPM Videos [Talks on introductory and advanced EEG/MEG topics]: http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/spm/course/video/

BESA Tutorials [Provides an introduction to different analysis techniques]: http://www.besa.de/tutorials/hands_on/

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