Monitoring visual sustained attention with a low-cost EEG headset

Abstract

In this preliminary study, we explore the brain activity of healthy subjects during visual sustained attention task using a low-cost electroencephalography headset. The main objective is to study the ability of subjects to detect and respond to stimulus changes which occur infrequently during the time using Emotiv EPOC system. 14-Channels EEG data were recorded while subjects participated in 10 minutes arrows direction task. They were asked to press the left button when the arrow is directed to left and stop pressing when the arrow is directed to right. EEG data were analyzed using brain topography map. Results showed high activation in the brain areas in the beginning of the experiment and low activation over time for next trials. When the right arrow appears on the screen a high activation is observed on all the brain regions.