This blog post will feature an introduction to my active research project which aims to make a self-contained wearable EEG that can be used to record brain activity in extreme conditions.
Welcome to the first of many blog posts about my ongoing research projects! This post will serve as an introduction to my funded summer project, as I feel it could interest a wide variety of people from competitive athletes to fellow neuroscience researchers. This project incorporates both my neuroscience coursework and my competitive swimming background (which you can read about in my first blog post - "More about me"), as I aim to modify and waterproof a commercial EEG. The funding for the project comes from the UDiscover Summer Scholar Grant that I won earlier this spring, which you can read about under the "Experience" section of my website's homepage. UDiscover is a grant offered by the University of South Dakota which pairs undergraduate students with faculty mentors allowing students to lead their own research project for 12 weeks of the summer. I am conducting my EEG modification under the guidance of my Faculty Mentor, Dr. Doug Peterson. In fact, Dr. Peterson is the first neuroscience professor I ever had, and his course sparked my interest in pursuing a career in neuroscience.
For those who may not be familiar with EEG recording, an EEG is a device that records brain activity (the electrical signals in the brain) through non-invasive electrodes placed on the scalp. Current EEG restrictions require participants to be seated in a laboratory setting in order for recordings to be done. My goal is that by creating a portable and virtually indestructible case for an EEG, recordings will be able to be done anywhere and under any conditions. Given my competitive swimming background, I am particularly interested in waterproofing the device to allow for underwater EEG recordings. I believe that this device may allow for further research to be done on athletes while they train, hopefully allowing for improvements to training routines and perhaps for the development of cognitive training regimes to improve competition anxiety (which is another project I am excitedly working on). In addition, this self-contained concept could be used as a way to easily record the brain activity of a given individual while they go about their daily routine, which could provide additional insight into the functioning of the human brain.
The main EEG recording board I am working with is called the "Ganglion", and it is a 4-channel recording system sold by OpenBCI. It so small that it would fit in the palm of your hand, making it the perfect size for a portable device. It is also relatively cheap, which is important to consider when my project entails putting something not waterproof into water, so any leaks in my waterproof case will result in a destroyed board. The silver battery pack you see attached to the actual EEG recording board is not the battery that OpenBCI sends to you, but rather a slimmer version that Dr. Peterson found from a company called Adafruit. Since the Ganglion device had not arrived when the project started we were using its more expensive 8-channel cousin, the OpenBCI Cyton, for our prototype construction.
For anyone new to OpenBCI systems, or new to EEG recording systems in general, I'll use the next paragraph to explain the basic board layout. I'm still learning myself, but here's what I know so far. The gold spikes on the side of the board are the pins that we connect our electrodes to. There are both ground and reference pins, denoted by "D_G" and "REF" respectively, and they basically help create a usable signal. So far in my work, we have usually connected the ground and reference to the earlobes or mastoid bones (a large lumpy bone behind the ear). In addition, we bilaterally tape electrodes to the forehead (at Fp1 and Fp2 for anyone familiar with electrode recording placement), which connect on the pins denoted by "+2" and "+4", meaning channels 2 and 4 of the recording system. The OpenBCI board can also be used for other recording purposes, such as EMG, but my work currently focuses on its EEG capabilities.
The device itself is not waterproof, and the board would most likely "fry" if even just a few drops of water got on it. So how can we waterproof a board? How can I as an undergraduate student, with a budget of less than $1000.00 and the help of my faculty mentor, create something usable out of solely commercial items? Well, we start by trying to create a waterproof enclosure that allows the board to maintain functionality but protected from water, bearing in mind that we have to have some kind of access point in order to have our electrode wires connected to both the participant and the board.
We used the project funds to purchase various waterproof cases from Amazon, as those seemed like a great starting point. After examining our purchases in person and performing some basic water tests (submerging the cases with sharpie inked paper towel inside), we found one box in particular that seemed as though it would work best for our purposes. It is relatively small and cheap, allowing us to make multiple prototypes on a budget.
The next step, which took place during week one of the project, was to figure out how we would wire our electrodes through the box and to the EEG recording board. Luckily for me, Dr. Peterson is very knowledgeable about electronics, so he taught me how to strip wires and add connectors to them. I modified an old USB cable to have the necessary male and female connectors on each end, which gave us an inexpensive cord to work with.
In order to achieve our first prototype, we drilled a hold into the top of the waterproof box to feed this repurposed USB cable from the board to the electrodes on the scalp. The wire fit somewhat snugly in the hole, and we used a waterproof silicone sealant to ensure that no water would leak in around our wiring. Finally, I used a disconnected heart rate monitor strap to connect the device to my body, allowing me to move freely while wearing the EEG, which was the final step in creating my first prototype. This prototype will likely be the first of many, as refinements will be needed in order for this device to truly be portable.
Above is a photo of the first simple prototype (without the heart rate strap) Dr. Peterson and I managed to create in just a few short weeks. But now the real question, does it work? Well, the short answer is yes, but I will provide the full details in my next blog post! I hope you enjoyed the summary of my first two weeks as a researcher!