Which EEG device to purchase for data acquisition

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i see only some of the EEG headsets are compatible with MNE for montages to have topographic plots. Being a PhD student i want to purchase EEG headset

can any one suggest, which headset i need to purchase (including suggestion on num of channels, company name etc…), so that it could be compatible with MNE library and also EEG lab etc and work well

please can anyone reply to me @ anudeep.errabelly@okstate.edu

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Hello @AnudeepErrabelly and welcome to the forum!

Generally you can use pretty much any EEG system. It’s helpful if the electrode layout / the cap they provide follows a 10-20 (or similar standardized) layout. This will make certain things easier, esp. if you want to perform analyses on the source level and don’t have individual electrode locations and MRI scans available for each participant.

From my own experience, I feel that Biosemi systems with active electrodes are very easy and quick to prepare (by that I mean the time it takes to place the cap and be ready for recording). I personally have a positive bias towards BrainProducts active electrodes, even though they may have some limitations. But I can’t help it, I somehow find the company sympathetic (only ever had great experiences with their support team).

I believe it makes sense to get a system that some of your colleagues are already familiar with – as every system has its own quirks.

I hope this helps a little.

Richard

cc @sappelhoff @cbrnr maybe you have some input too

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I have used Biosemi, BrainProducts, and g.tec amplifiers in the past, and they are all great products! It sounds a little as if you are planning to buy an EEG amplifier yourself (since you mention that you are a PhD student and the term headset), so just a heads up that a good amplifier will set you back several 10,000 € (or $)! A cheaper (consumer-grade) headset with a few dry electrodes will in general not record high-quality EEG signals suitable for research. One exception might be OpenBCI, but only if you combine them with gel-based electrodes.

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Here is a feedback on the systems I know of. Note that this is only reflecting my personal opinion and that I mostly used the ANT Neuro mylab system during the past years.

  • ANT Neuro mylab with gel-based caps 64 channels or 128 channels, and sponge-based caps 128 and 256 channels. This is our preferred system with the 64 channels gel-based cap being our bread and butter. This systems represents 70-80% of our activity.
    • Pros: The caps are very robust and well made, the gel-based caps have suction cups on each electrode which limit electrode bridges, the 64 channel gel-based cap is quick to setup (for someone experienced, 10’), and the amplifiers worked great and are reliable, built-in support for LSL (real-time application), acquisition software is versatile.
    • Cons: The proprietary software is not intuitive and it takes time to familiarize yourself with it, the support is sometimes helpful sometimes forgetful and lacking, export to brainvision format seems to be missing some information (e.g. user annotations), native CNT format is not supported by MNE.
  • EGI GES-400 + EGI GES-300: 128 or 256 sponge-based caps. We are trying to retire those 2 systems, they are getting more and more capricious, sometimes it’s even difficult to boot the amplifier and we found that letting it rest for a week helps for some reason :person_facepalming:. Overall, the signal quality is not great (they pick up a ton of 50 Hz compared to e.g. ANT or BrainProduct amplifiers) but they were among the first to offer high-density EEG with sponge based caps. Last point, the fiber optic connecting the AUX box with bipolar channels breaks easily.
  • BrainProduct: actiCHamp, Vamp, BrainAmp: Overall, great systems, but we do favor ANT Neuro mylab which is compact and offers similar or better signal quality. For the gel-based caps, the BrainProduct caps have flat-large electrodes which easily bridge with neighbors.
  • g.Tec: I would not recommend those systems. I can’t remember the exact model, but the 1 point I remember is that the proprietary software offered an impedance measurement that was (1) not done against the reference and (2) missing the reference entirely… and you had to guess those 2 points!
  • BEL EEG System One: it comes as a replacement of the EGI systems and looks promising. However, when we tested an early version, it did not felt as a complete product yet.

As Richard said, I also believe it would makes sense to get a system that some of your colleagues are already familiar with as experience is the key factor.

As Clemens said, those systems are also very expensive thus budget will be a clear limitation. For instance, The ANT mylab system is priced around 35k. I would also avoid dry electrode systems with only a few channels, but in the end it depends on what you plan on doing with them.

Mathieu

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