EEG Devices

[completeandtotalidiot]

Thanks for both explanations. I would have never guessed the first, but feel slightly more stupid for not figuring out the TS-tx vs PS-rx difference on my own.

Last year I bought a walkman-sized portable EEG/HEG unit with a small built-in rudimentary LCD display, and even after having been warned that EEG lead placement is something of an art, I dove in head first (almost literally, I guess) and successfully started screwing with the wiring in my brain within minutes. Fairly expensive-yet-super cool software is available, and probably purchased pro forma (the LCD display is so antiquated it actually has a "Pong" display option) -- but I'll never know, because the interface is a built-in wifi transmitter and a PC dongle, which won't work on Vista, nor anything x64 -- and while there is a Linux version of the software, I already hate Windows and Mac and really don't feel like learning a new OS so I can hate it, too.

So, -- thanks for switching to USB-USB on your newer model(s,) and thanks even more for not upgrading to wifi.

[CraigT]

I'm guessing you're referring to the Pocket A3 EEG and BioExplorer, yesno?

I've recently got the Pendant from the same company, along with the BioExplorer software. It is, indeed, super cool. The speed with which I was up and running has even me surprised.

In spite of the warnings about the difficulty of electrode placement I too leapt straight in and have been immensely pleased to find that I can do what I bought the EEG to do very easily. All I wanted was 'proof of entrainment' and the ability to drive the entrainment with the EEG and Mind Workstation. Both can be done just fine with electrodes more-or-less in the right place, and I've been surprised at how much else I have been able to deduce from what I see.

Also very cool is that you can set the EEG up with BE as an ECG or EMG, so you can use it for simple Heart Rate Variability or Breath biofeedback, or detect muscle activity for really simple lucid dreaming REM detection.

Maybe some year I'll get into more clever measurements, but in the absence of any relevant qualifications I'm kidding myself if I believe I'm ever going to do any serious neurotherapy or neuroscience.

A matter of curiosity - what is the attraction of Vista 64 that makes so many people tolerate the lack of drivers? Personally I'd ditch any OS that prevented me using anything I really wanted to use.

Cheers,
Craig

[completeandtotalidiot]

1) Yes -- pocket A3, Bioexplorer and "the other one" -- name escapes me, but originally open-source, now priced comparatively with BE. The open version is archived and available, but wouldn't load for me on x32 xp

2) Superstition -- I suspect those of us with Vista x64 have x64 processors and thus want to process with all x64s. I have a netbook running xp x32 pro, so the next time I knock over a convenience store and can afford BE, I'll load it on that; my desktop is primarily for HD viewing; I have a fairly critical eye and ear, and frankly I don't think I'm getting much more out of my "extra" 32 bits. I expect we'll get spanked soon for going so far off-topic, but while we're here: the only two technological achievements worth investing in since cave drawings are 1080p and lossless soundtracks. Everything in between are the equivalent of AV snakeoil, and even 33 more bits won't change that. But it's fun to pretend...

3) Please -- PLEASE -- elucidate on "drive the entrainment with the EEG and Mind Workstation." And while I'm making demands: what results are you getting that show entrainment? I've been going audio-out from ThoughtStream into Aux in on Proteus; prior to this, the wall-to-wall pastel out-of-focus walls of color in Proteus would kick my legs out from under me (in a good way now that I'm adding an indepenent droning biofeedback tone I haven't experienced this "a-ha" experience again -- but that could also be due to acclimation (I get the feeling the consciousness-shift I've gotten from Proteus was a reaction to an inability to get a sense of my environment each time my mind tried to get a fix on this focus-less wall of color, so it's possible my brain has stopped expecting this wall to provide it any stable environmental info.) It never occured to me I might actually have the tools in my little Frankenstein basement here to get some kind of objective readings.

All I'm currently using the A3 for is nir heg triangulated for fpz, and a single eeg lead (+ground +ref) at fpz; the only testing I've done has been anecdotal, but pursuasive enough to believe I'm actually driving my brain-ox and prefrontal activity, which seem to be unrelated activities in that after a few days of eeg it will be two days of heg before I can influence heg again, and vice-versa -- which suggests my brain needs a day of failure to figure out it needs to switch to "the other activity." So far, my superior brain-ox levels and prefrontal activitly levels have not made me psychic nor a supergenius nor particularly interesting at cocktail parties, so I think I need to take this thing to the next level, whatever that is, or I might never end up ruling all things (my perfectly modest secret goal.)

4) Here's my arrogant "this is what worked for me, so here's what will work for everyone" advice re lucid dreaming: I had and have absolutely no interest in being woken up for a housefire let alone to initiate lucid dreaming, but the first day I tried this I succeeded: ask yourself as often as you can remember, "am I dreaming?," including and especially during that hypnogogic state while falling asleep. Theory is the habit will eventually transfer over into your dreamlife, when hopefully the answer will be a correct, "yes." If you're not certain of the answer, I've read you should look at a clock or anything written -- it's supposed to be a universal that we don't dream numbers nor the written word too well. The first evening after starting this self-talk it worked; I knew I was dreaming and felt a little bit superior in that my clocks and watch were working perfectly well -- but faced with the ability to reshape my reality without any limits, all I really wanted to do was watch TV. So I pretty much just sat around waiting to wake up so I could see what was on HBO. Haven't had much interest in lucid dreaming since.

[CraigT]

The 'other one' is probably BioEra. A 1-month trial of it is included on EEG installation disk, but it reports 'trial period expired' immediatly upon installation on my system

I can understand the desire to work all those extra bits, but from what I have read there's often a speed penalty with Vista 64 or Vista 32. I'm running plain old Home Premium on a 64-bit processor and I'm much more pleased with it than I had anticipated.

1080p rocks!!! I had to see it in my own living room to believe anything could make that much difference. I'd rather watch BluRay than go to the movies - who wants muddy projection on a dirty screen when you can have such clarity and intensity at home? And even this isn't all that far off topic, as I'm quite interested in video-embedded entrainment too.

Driving entrainment with EEG - Mind Workstation interfaces with BioExplorer so that you can have most aspects of the entrainment controlled by anything BioExplorer can measure - entrainment frequency by dominant brainwave frequency, volume by brainwave amplitude - almost anything. It's much like the changing tone of the Thoughstream, or the Proteus TS controlled sessions - except moreso.

I've seen similar results, single channel, with electrodes somewhere around C3/C4 and FZ/OZ with ground on earlobe - a good decisive alpha burst on closing eyes and increases in activity at whatever entrainment frequency within a few minutes. I've even noticed increases in beta if I start performing mental arithmetic. I have done nothing quantifiable - I've just seen the changing activity in the real-time 3D spectrograph.

Since my first seriously lucid dream a little while back, and since the 'conditions' for which I got into entrainment are now under control, I've been very interested in this and other altered state phenomena. My preferred strategy to achieve lucid dreams now is to awake until I'm really tired, listening to SMR (lights and sound), have a large glass of water, put on an all night sleep-cycle (delta with theta periods) session (speakers only) and go to sleep until the water gets my attention. When I go back to bed, still half asleep, I usually have a lucid dream.

I was reading an interesting article the other day about amateur contributions to science. The comment was that astronomy is pretty much the only field where amateurs routinely make significant contributions. I believe neuroscience could be another if we get our act together. There's so many things to explore, with so many subtle permutations, and it's so time consuming, that scientists and researchers are only going to be able to do so much.

Cheers,
Craig

[Andy]

FYI, guys...

x64 is the 64-bit version of an OS or Processor
x86 is the 32-bit version of an OS or Processor

there is no x32, even though it would make more sense if there was!

-Andy.