electroencephalography

A makeshift EEG lab

Say, you need to set up a makeshift EEG lab in an office? Easy-peasy---only, try to move the hardware as little as possible, especially laptops with dongles sticking out. The rest is a trail of snapshots devoid of captions, clutter, a sink and a shower room, as this is only an ancillary, temporary, extraordinary little lab, and all those staples are within reach in our mainstream lab (see Ledwidge et al., 2018).

Preventing muscle artifacts in electroencephalography sessions

Electroencephalographic (EEG) signals are often contaminated by muscle artifacts such as blinks, jaw clenching and (of course) yawns, which generate electrical activity that can obscure the brain signals of interest. These artifacts typically manifest as large, abrupt changes in the EEG signal, complicating data interpretation and analysis. To mitigate these issues, participants can be instructed during the preparatory phase of the session to minimize blinking and to keep their facial muscles relaxed. Additionally, researchers can emphasize the importance of staying still and provide practice sessions to help participants become aware of their movements, thereby reducing the likelihood of muscle artifacts affecting the EEG recordings.