EEG and ERP Laboratory

The lab facilitates both intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary work among researchers who may not otherwise collaborate.

The Lab’s Mission

Colgate's electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potential (ERP) lab is equipped with a state-of-the-art EEG system, funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant. The system is shared by Colgate professors and undergraduate research students exploring human behavior from multiple perspectives.

This laboratory provides a common tool to connect a diverse range of faculty members’ and students’ interests.

Research in psychological and brain sciences

About Electroencephalography

Electroencephalography involves placing surface electrodes on the scalp of a human participant and recording weak gross electrical signals generated by the brain.
 

In contrast to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), or diffuse optical imaging (DOI) techniques, EEG is a more direct measure of neural activity, whereas these other neuroimaging techniques yield measures of physiological changes that are only correlated with changes in neuronal activity.
 

EEG recordings can be time-locked to behavioral experimental paradigms in the form of event-related potentials (ERPs), thereby allowing for a wide variety of analyses focused on the temporal localization of different brain signals. This makes EEG a very powerful technique for assessing the temporal characteristics of the brain’s neuroelectric activity. 

About the Lab

The laboratory is located in Olin Hall within two electrically shielded rooms: a control room and an experiment room.

Three computers in the control room are used for running experiments and recording data from the EEG nets:

  • One NetStation computer is the primary interface with the net amplifier, which is located in the experiment room. NetStation also saves and processes EEG data, and provides real-time
  • Two additional machines are experiment control stations used for creating and running experiments through either E-Prime or Psykinematix software. Each of these experiment control stations has different presentation capabilities.
     

Lab Access and Training

Professors and student researchers who are interested in incorporating EEG or ERP measures into their research must complete a series of lab training sessions. Contact the lab directory (below) to request and coordinate training.

For those who have already been trained, the document “An Abridged Reference Manual for Lab Protocols” serves as a reference for general lab protocols.

Contact Information

For general questions about the lab, or if you need assistance with any aspect of your experiment, contact the lab director
 

Bruce C. Hanser (bchansen)

Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
107B Olin Hall
  • TR 1:00pm - 2:30pm (Ho 423)