Crowdsourced EEG experiments: A proof of concept for remote EEG acquisition using EmotivPRO Builder and EmotivLABS

Abstract

The development of online research platforms has made data collection more efficient and representative of populations. However, these benefits have not been available for use with cognitive neuroscience tools such as electroencephalography (EEG). In this study, we introduce an approach for remote EEG data collection. We demonstrate how an experiment can be built via the EmotivPRO Builder and deployed to the EmotivLABS website where it can be completed by participants who own EMOTIV EEG headsets. To demonstrate the data collection technique, we collected EEG while participants engaged in a resting state task where participants sat with their eyes open and then eyes closed for 2 min each. We observed a significant difference in alpha power between the two conditions thereby demonstrating the well-known alpha suppression effect. Thus, we demonstrate that EEG data collection, particularly for frequency domain analysis, can be successfully conducted online.