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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Hum. Neurosci.
Sec. Motor Neuroscience
Volume 18 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2024.1466853

Mobile EEG for the Study of Cognitive-Motor Interference during Swimming?

Provisionally accepted
Melanie Klapprott Melanie Klapprott 1*Stefan Debener Stefan Debener 1,2,3
  • 1 Department of Psychology, Neuropsychology Lab, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
  • 2 Cluster of Excellence Hearing4All, Oldenburg, Lower Saxony, Germany
  • 3 Branch for Hearing, Speech, and Audiology Technology HSA, Fraunhofer Insitute for Digital Media Technology IDMT, Oldenburg, Lower Saxony, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Research on brain function in natural environments has become a new interest in cognitive science. In this study, we aim to advance mobile electroencephalography (EEG) participant and device mobility. We investigated the feasibility of measuring human brain activity using mobile EEG during a full-body motion task as swimming, by the example of cognitive-motor interference (CMI). Eleven participants were given an auditory oddball task while sitting and swimming, with mobile EEG recording ongoing brain activity. Measures of interest were eventrelated potentials (ERPs) elicited by experimental stimuli. While the auditory N100 was measured to verify signal quality, the P300 to task-relevant stimuli served as a marker of CMI effects.Analyses were first performed within subjects, while binomial tests assessed the proportion of significant effects. Event-related changes in the time-frequency domain around turns during swimming were analysed in an exploratory fashion. The successful recording of the N100 in all conditions shows that the setup was functional throughout the experiment. Regarding CMI, we did not find reliable changes in P300 amplitude in different motor settings in all subjects. However, we found plausible modulations in the alpha/mu and beta bands before and after turns. This study shows that it is generally feasible to measure mobile EEG in the time and time-frequency domain in an aquatic environment while subjects are freely moving. We see promising potential in the use of mobile EEG in extreme settings, advancing towards the application of mobile EEG in more real-life situations.

    Keywords: mobile EEG, Participant Mobility, device mobility, cognitive-motor interference, Swimming, Ecological Validity

    Received: 18 Jul 2024; Accepted: 13 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Klapprott and Debener. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Melanie Klapprott, Department of Psychology, Neuropsychology Lab, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.