EEG LAB

Introduction

The EEG Lab is located in the basement of Luisenstraße 56 (Haus 1) at Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. The lab is equipped with hardware & software for running electrophysiology experiments. Access to the lab is granted by permission only. Please see the list of contacts to request access. If you plan to do so, you should download and review the "Fire Protection" presentation and the "Safety Protocol" document located in the wiki sidebar. You must print and sign the "Safety Protocol" document and return this to one of the Administrators responsible for granting access to the lab.

This wiki entry is a comprehensive introduction to the EEG Lab, including important safety information, how to schedule time in the lab, mandatory lab practice, and the current hardware and software available in the lab. Mind & Brain members are strongly encouraged to read the entire wiki entry. Failure to follow mandatory lab practices could result in denial of access to the facilities. Finally, the EEG Lab is constantly updating and maintaining the hardware and software available to researchers. To stay up-to-date with the current developments, please refer to and use the EEG Lab Log.

Location

Google Map
The Berlin School of Mind and Brain,
Humboldt Universität zu Berlin,
Luisenstraße 56 (Haus 1)
10115 Berlin
Germany

Map of Basement

Map of basement labs. Please check to make sure you can access and unlock the emergency exit nearest the EEG Lab. In case the exit is locked, please immediately call Annette Winkelmann @ 1706.

Lab safety

Emergency Contact

The EEG Lab is equipped with a standard telephone. Important numbers are listed next to the telephone. To make a call within the building, you do not need to use the 2093 prefix.

For fire, acute illness, or other serious emergencies:

• General emergency telephone: 112
• First aid: 1706 (Annette Winkelmann)
• Building security: 6000 or 0173/889867
• Alarm hotline: 2416

For external calls, you must dial a 0 before the number you wish to call.

Mandatory practice

You must read the following section before inviting any participant to your experiment.

The participant's safety is your top priority. Please follow these rules at all times:

• Never leave a subject or patient unsupervised in the lab.
• Familiarize yourself with the basement labs map (see above).
• Check access to the emergency exits. In the event of a fire or other disaster, you should be able to escort your participant safely and swiftly to an exit.
• Check certain that you know how to reach people in the building on the telephone and how to telephone outside the building.
• Participant's may not enter the EEG chamber without signing a consent form.

Food and Beverage

You may bring food/beverage into the lab, but do NOT bring them inside the EEG chamber. Water for subjects is ok. There are plastic cups in the cupboard.

Monitoring the EEG chamber

The lab is equipped with a two-way intercom system, and a webcam directed into the EEG Chamber. Instructions for using the intercom here. Instructions for turning on the webcam can be found here.

EEG Lab Mandatory Practice

This section will help you to familiarize yourself with the mandatory practices of the EEG Lab.

Creating Experiments

You must create a record of your experiment in the Online Participant Recruitment System. This system is available to all Mind and Brain researchers. The system makes it easy to recruit participants for experiments, and schedule sessions in the labs. Please use the links listed under the "Participant Recruitment" header in the Wiki sidebar to learn more about the Database.

Scheduling Sessions

You must schedule sessions of your Experiment in the Participant Recruitment System. If you do not have access to the system, please review the "How to" section under the "Participant Recruitment" header of the Wiki sidebar.

Once you have confirmed sessions for your experiment, you are all set! Good luck.

However, there may be times during which your scheduled sessions are not filled with participants, or participants have not shown up. In this case, there are some common-sense rules for what you should do with your sessions on the private & public calendar. These rules are meant to help insure that the EEG Lab resources are not under-utilized because of booked sessions that are unattended.

Rules for scheduled sessions

Please review the "How to" section under the "Participant Recruitment" header of the Wiki sidebar to learn about the changes to sessions you must implement in the Recruitment system discussed below.

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(1) if you have back to back sessions scheduled on a single day, and you have NO participants scheduled, and you wish to keep your time in the lab, then you must change your lab time in the System to "non-experimental".

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(2) if you have back to back sessions scheduled on a single day, but you have NO participants scheduled, and you do not wish to keep your time in the lab, then you must remove your laboratory time in the System.

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(3) if you have back to back sessions scheduled on a single day, but there are only SOME unfilled sessions, if you do not wish to keep your session time, then you must remove your session time in the System.

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(4) if you have back to back sessions scheduled on a single day, but there are only SOME unfilled sessions, and you do wish to keep your time in the lab, then you must change your lab time in the System to "non-experimental".

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(5) if you have a no-show participant, then you must mark this fact in the System.

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In general, please try to do implement these rules as soon as you know there are changes to your lab session time. Accurately reporting and categorizing your lab time, and making a log of participant arrival, will help you in the long run when you finish your experiment and you want to determine how effective your recruitment was, and how much time you spent actually experimenting (among other benefits).

Computers and stimulus systems

EEG lab setupp

This section is meant to act as a general overview of each of the computers in the lab and the software they have to offer, as well as the systems with which to present stimuli. Before operating these computers by yourself, you should have been instructed by a trained lab member.

Stimulus computers

There are two stimulus computers:

• Stim1
• Stim2

Stim 1

Operating System is Windows XP.

Stim 2

We're going to give you some basic info about the computer. Anything else, you'll have to find on your own in System Information, which is pinned to the task bar.

• The system is a Dell Precision Tower 3620 x64 based PC.
• Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 3408 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
• Installed Physical Memory (RAM): 32.0 GB
• OS Name: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro

Dell Precision Tower

There are two graphics processing units on the system:

• Intel(R) HD Graphics 530
  • Resolution 1280 x 1024 x 59 hertz
  • Bits/Pixel 32

• NVIDIA Quadro M2000

http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/Quadro_Certified/385.90/385.90-nvidia-quadro-control-panel-quick-start-guide.pdf

CRT Monitor (Inside EEG room)

Samsung Syncmaster 959NF CRT Monitor 19-inch ftp://ftp.msan.hr/Docs/Samsung/CRT/959NF.pdf

file:///C:/Users/AG%20Villinger/Downloads/959nf_900nf.pdf

Data acquisition

An experienced lab member should be with you the few first times you run an experiment in the lab. Backing up your data is mandatory. Store your data on the Linux Workstation and/or external hard drives. Burn DVDs! How should they be labeled? experimenter’s name, name of the experiment, content/ids of participants.

General EEG laboratory guidelines

Several experiments are always running simultaneously in the lab. To prevent conflicts between different parameter settings, please make sure to leave the room in the state described in this section. Please do not make any permanent modification to the EEG lab. Do not leave any of your equipment in the EEG testing room. Place experimental equipment in the cupboard and be sure to clearly label each item so that your equipment is not misplaced or borrowed. If you need to label your equipment or make notes in the room, please use the labelling device or use a marker to write on the tape found in the control room .

What the lab should look like when you leave (STANDARD)

Clean outside 1

Clean outside 2

Clean inside

Sink and shelf

• shelf: tidy, refill towels, shampoo, etc. if necessary
• towels: wet towels – on the hook, dry in the laundry basket
• hair drier: on the hook
• sink: clean and tidy (e.g., cleaned syringes in cup, no waste next to the sink)

Sink Pump

A pump removes water from the sink in the EEG Lab. You can read about the pump here.

If the EEG LAB smells bad, it's probably because the pump is malfunctioning. Here's a few common problems:

PROBLEM The water standing in the pump's basin is dirty. You can check by looking inside the basin. Is it dirty? (The basin is the white bucket with pipes running in and out of it.)

SOLUTION Fill up a bucket with clean cold water, and pour it slowly into the basin. Let the pump remove the water, and repeat until the water inside the basin is clean. Note: a top later of water must stand in the basin. If you remove all of the water from the basin, then the pump might get an air-lock. So don't remove all the water from the basin. Just make sure it's always clean inside.

PROBLEM Soap scum gets built up on the sides of the basin.

SOLUTION Clean the soap scum from the sides of the basin with a sponge, or run hot water through the pump until it is clean.

PROBLEM The lab sink has not been used in a while, and the water in the P-trap has dried up.

The P-Traps look like this. P-traps prevent sewer gas from coming into the room. If the water inside the P-trap evaporates, then sewer gas inside the waste pipes come into the room.

SOLUTION Air out the lab. Open the window and front door, and run fresh water through the sink.

PROBLEM The towels are dirty, and they need to be washed.

SOLUTION Obvious.

Electrodes and caps

• cape: on the hook
• electrodes: on the hook (Plexiglas), sets (64 or 128 electrodes) should be placed together
• caps: on the correct and labeled Styrofoam heads

Work desk

• intercom: off
• monitors & PCs: off
• desk: tidy
• remote control for monitor switch: on the desk
• The infrared sensor for remote control is placed on the wall of the chamber

Stimulation PC (standard setup)

Cables plugged:

• Power cable
• Gray
  • Flicker goggles
  • Parallel port
• White
  • Keyboard outside
  • Mouse outside
  • Screen console (goes to switch)
• Yellow
  • EEG PC
• Pink
  • Keyboard inside
  • Mouse inside
  • Presentation screen (through switch)
  • Headphones

Inside the chamber

• Ventilation (outside): off
• Camera: off
• Desk: tidy
• Chin rest: disinfected

Amplifier

• Amplifier: off and blue battery cable unplugged
• Uncharged batteries: have to be exchanged and charged

Monika's pro tips in the case of noisy data (Jan 18, 2017)

1. check Ground electrodes and use more gel
2. if the amp's blue light is flashing, an electrode might be broken >> run the "bucket test" to see which one it is and replace it.