Validation of the Emotiv EPOC EEG system for research quality auditory event-related potentials in children.

Nicholas A Badcock,Kathryn A Preece,Bianca De Wit,Genevieve Mcarthur,Nora Fieder,Katharine Glenn,Johnson Thie

doi:10.7717/peerj.907

Nicholas A Badcock, Kathryn A Preece + Show 5 more

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https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.907

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Journal: PeerJ	Publication Date: Apr 21, 2015
Citations: 123	License type: cc-by

Affiliation: Macquarie University, University of Sydney

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.

Highlights

An auditory event-related potential (ERP) is the average pattern of electrical activity generated by neurons in response to a particular auditory event
Passive auditory ERPs have proved useful for investigating auditory processing in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; Taylor et al, 1997), schizophrenia (Todd, Michie & Jablensky, 2003); autism (McPartland et al, 2004); developmental dyslexia (McArthur, Atkinson & Ellis, 2009); and specific language impairment (Whitehouse, Barry & Bishop, 2008)
Considered together, the outcomes of these seminal studies suggest that the EPOC system can be adapted to record valid auditory P1, N1, P2, N2, and P3 ERP peaks in adults

Summary

Introduction

An auditory event-related potential (ERP) is the average pattern of electrical activity generated by neurons in response to a particular auditory event. Badcock et al (2013) examined auditory ERPs in “passive” (standard and deviant tones are ignored) and “active” (deviant tones are counted) listening conditions in adults, using an adapted EPOC system and a research-grade Neuroscan system. They found high reliability for the “late auditory ERP” peaks (i.e., P1, N1, P2, N2, and P3) but not for the “mismatch negativity” component (MMN; see Naatanen et al, 2004). 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. 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

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