eeg-paradigm-designer
EEG Paradigm Designer
Purpose
This skill encodes expert knowledge for designing EEG experimental paradigms that reliably isolate specific event-related potential (ERP) components. Designing an EEG paradigm differs fundamentally from designing a behavioral experiment: timing constraints are stricter, stimulus properties must be controlled to avoid confounding sensory ERPs with cognitive ERPs, trial counts must be higher to achieve adequate signal-to-noise ratios, and the choice of control condition directly determines which neural process can be isolated via subtraction. A general-purpose programmer or experimental psychologist without EEG training would get many of these decisions wrong.
For ERP preprocessing and analysis after data collection, see the erp-analysis skill. For general experimental paradigm selection (behavioral focus), see the cognitive-paradigm-design skill.
When to Use This Skill
- Designing a new EEG experiment targeting a specific ERP component
- Choosing between paradigm variants to optimize a particular ERP signal
- Determining timing parameters (SOA, ISI, epoch length) for an EEG study
- Calculating minimum trial counts per condition for a target component
- Selecting electrode montage density for a given research question
- Designing control conditions that enable clean difference waveforms
- Reviewing an existing EEG paradigm design for methodological issues