title: Measuring the face-sensitive N170 with a gaming EEG system: A validation study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The N170 is a "face-sensitive" event-related potential (ERP) that occurs at around 170ms over occipito-temporal brain regions. The N170's potential to provide insight into the neural processing of faces in certain populations (e.g., children and adults with cognitive impairments) is limited by its measurement in scientific laboratories that can appear threatening to some people.
  
  
  METHODS
  The advent of cheap, easy-to-use portable gaming EEG systems provides an opportunity to record EEG in new contexts and populations. This study tested the validity of the face-sensitive N170 ERP measured with an adapted commercial EEG system (the Emotiv EPOC) that is used at home by gamers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The N170 recorded through both the gaming EEG system and the research EEG system exhibited face-sensitivity, with larger mean amplitudes in response to the face stimuli than the non-face stimuli, and a delayed N170 peak in response to face inversion.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The EPOC system produced very similar N170 ERPs to a research-grade Neuroscan system, and was capable of recording face-sensitivity in the N170, validating its use as research tool in this arena.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This opens new possibilities for measuring the face-sensitive N170 ERP in people who cannot travel to a traditional ERP laboratory (e.g., elderly people in care), who cannot tolerate laboratory conditions (e.g., people with autism), or who need to be tested in situ for practical or experimental reasons (e.g., children in schools).
authors.affiliation: Department of Cognitive Science, ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia. Electronic address: peter.delissa@mq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: de Lissa
authors.affiliation: Department of Cognitive Science, ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Sidsel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sörensen
authors.affiliation: Department of Cognitive Science, ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Badcock
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Johnson
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Thie
authors.affiliation: Department of Cognitive Science, ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Genevieve
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: McArthur
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D004566:Electrodes; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009862:Online Systems; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: ERPs; Faces; N170; VPP