Using Muse: Rapid Mobile Assessment of Brain Performance.

Olave E Krigolson,Mathew R Hammerstrom,Wande Abimbola,Robert Trska,Gordon Binsted,Kent G Hecker,Bruce W Wright

doi:10.3389/fnins.2021.634147

Abstract

The advent of mobile electroencephalography (mEEG) has created a means for large scale collection of neural data thus affording a deeper insight into cognitive phenomena such as cognitive fatigue. Cognitive fatigue – a neural state that is associated with an increased incidence of errorful performance – is responsible for accidents on a daily basis which at times can cost human lives. To gain better insight into the neural signature of cognitive fatigue in the present study we used mEEG to examine the relationship between perceived cognitive fatigue and human-event related brain potentials (ERPs) and electroencephalographic (EEG) oscillations in a sample of 1,000 people. As a secondary goal, we wanted to further demonstrate the capability of mEEG to accurately measure ERP and EEG data. To accomplish these goals, participants performed a standard visual oddball task on an Apple iPad while EEG data were recorded from a Muse EEG headband. Counter to traditional EEG studies, experimental setup and data collection was completed in less than seven minutes on average. An analysis of our EEG data revealed robust N200 and P300 ERP components and neural oscillations in the delta, theta, alpha, and beta bands. In line with previous findings we observed correlations between ERP components and EEG power and perceived cognitive fatigue. Further, we demonstrate here that a linear combination of ERP and EEG features is a significantly better predictor of perceived cognitive fatigue than any ERP or EEG feature on its own. In sum, our results provide validation of mEEG as a viable tool for research and provide further insight into the impact of cognitive fatigue on the human brain.

Highlights

IntroductionThe scientific community has questioned the quality of mobile electroencephalography (mEEG) data – especially of measurements collected by the growing array of low-cost (less than $1,000) mEEG systems
Over the past decade there has been a rapid increase in the use of mobile electroencephalography to address a range of research questions that have not been possible to ask with more tradition lab-based electroencephalographic (EEG) systems
In line with the principle aim of this study, we found that the majority of our event related brain potentials (ERPs) and EEG measurements were correlated with perceived cognitive fatigue

Summary

Introduction

The scientific community has questioned the quality of mEEG data – especially of measurements collected by the growing array of low-cost (less than $1,000) mEEG systems. Countering this uncertainty, in prior work (Krigolson et al, 2017) we demonstrated that it was possible to record mEEG data that was comparable to that acquired by a research grade system. Validating our work, Fickling et al (2020) replicated our findings with the Muse EEG headband and demonstrated that they could measure ERPs with this device. Other research groups have demonstrated similar findings with low-cost EEG systems such as the OpenBCI Cyton (Qiu et al, 2019) and the Emotiv Epoc+ (Kotowski et al, 2019; Mercado-Aguirre et al, 2019)

Results

Discussion

Conclusion