The evolution continues – see what’s new in BrainVision Analyzer 2.3.1

The Ocular Correction transform, dedicated to attenuate ocular artifacts using the Gratton and Coles algorithm, has undergone a significant update. This new version has been fully rewritten with improved numerical precision and ported to the .NET platform.

A major usability improvement in the redesigned user interface is the ability to select both blink correction and blink marker placement in one go. Moreover, you can now place blink interval markers or use existing ones for blink correction. In this way, the blinks are highlighted in a more intuitive way as the blink interval is marked from start to end.

The user interface also incorporates a standardized item selection control for channel selection, providing standard options for efficient channel inclusion and exclusion.

The Operation Infos has also been improved, providing detailed information about the parameters used, along with messages that highlight the validation outcomes. These include problems detected in the input data, missing parameters, and the adjustments applied when such issues are identified during validation.

While the latest Analyzer version introduces new features and enhancements, existing history trees or history templates containing older Ocular Correction nodes will remain compatible. Nonetheless, we recommend replacing nodes created using obsolete modules with the updated ones. The Troubleshooting module (via Add Ins > Diagnostics) can help you easily identify such outdated nodes.

The Ocular Correction ICA transform, which uses an ICA-based approach to attenuate ocular artifacts, has also undergone a significant update to its detection mechanism to align with the above mentioned improvements made to the Ocular Correction transform. This ensures consistency across both transforms resulting in a unified approach for detecting ocular artifacts.

We have listened closely to our customers’ feedback requesting more diverse and inclusive skin tone options for 3D head maps. As a result, we have introduced a new head color selection control in the 3D Head View, allowing users to choose from a broader range of skin tones.

This control incorporates the Monk Skin Tone Scale [1], which offers a broader spectrum of skin tones. In addition to the predefined tones from the scale, the color selection control also includes standard colors, providing flexibility to accommodate different visualization and presentation needs.

About Analyzer, accessible under the Help tab, has been enhanced to provide comprehensive licensing information. You can now easily retrieve details about the license currently in use:

• License name including license type (single-user or network)
• Dongle label and license Key ID
• Firmware version
• Information about the license server
• Expiration status: “Indefinite” for perpetual licenses, or a specific expiry date for time-limited ones

We have now introduced a new Solution called Standardized Measurement Error, designed to facilitate data quality assessment in event-related experimental designs. The Solution implements the analytical Standardized Measurement Error (aSME), a robust metric developed by Luck et al. [2], offering a standardized way to evaluate EEG data quality.

The Solution provides flexible ways to compute aSME, either across the entire trial using consecutive windows based on a user defined window length or within specific time intervals corresponding to targeted ERP components. It can be applied to single or multiple datasets (history files), providing an assessment at the participant level as well as aggregated quality metrics for the overall experiment. For each participant, the Solution computes individual aSMEs and aggregated metrics, specifically the Root Mean Square (RMS) and the average of all individual aSMEs.

To support quality control, the Solution includes two methods for detecting outliers across time windows per channel: one based on a user defined absolute value and another using a threshold defined by the Mean + N x Standard Deviation, where N is a user defined factor that determines the sensitivity. The results are exported in an easy-to-read CSV (comma separated values) format, with outliers flagged accordingly.

This Solution addresses our customers’ increasing demand for a data quality assessment tool and is available upon request.

The Select Trials Solution, introduced in Issue 2/2023 of our newsletter, has only been offered upon request so far. It is now part of our official Solutions package and can be downloaded from our website.