Frequently Asked Questions

The t-Interface 20 is where the differencing between the rings of the t-Leads occurs. Since there is only one ring/sensor on conventional disc electrodes, there is no need to plug disc electrodes in to the preamplifier. Further, our unique TCRE design and t-Interface 20 provides an equivalent conventional disc electrode output for each t-Lead. The t-Interface 20 provides both the high-fidelity tEEG (tripolar EEG) and eEEG (emulated conventional EEG) simultaneously from the each t-Lead.

There are no conventional EEG amplifiers, that we are aware of, that have adequate specifications to acquire signals from the t-Leads.

Further, the differencing of the outer ring and central disc, and middle ring and central disc of the t-Lead, along with the Laplacian algorithm first reported in Besio et al. 2006, is performed within the t-Interface 20 circuitry. Therefore, t-Leads will not work with a standard amplifier and you will not get the benefits of the automatic Laplacian provided by the tripolar signal.

Setting up t-Leads on the head for a recording using conductive paste takes no more time than setting up conventional disc electrodes on the head for a recording using paste.

For disinfecting caps, our normal recommendation is to use Envirocide or Metricide. Cavicide is a great alternative as well. While we don’t have any test data on the precise effectiveness of these disinfectants against viruses in the Coronavirus family (such as SARS-CoV-2, aka the COVID-19 virus), we do know that they are active against enveloped viruses such as those. And the good news is that enveloped viruses (such as those in the Coronavirus family) are the easiest to kill. Normal soap kills them pretty well, so for a disinfecting agent even soap equates to “low level disinfection.”

User references are available upon request. Please email us at [email protected] and a member of our Scientific Consultant team will be happy to assist.

A stand-alone license is physically plugged into the computer that will run BVA2. This is the typical use case when a single person at a time is processing data. Whereas, a network license is plugged into one computer, and provided that the firewalls are configured properly, the other computers in the lab area can access the license(s). This is very useful when you have multiple lab members working in one office or lab area on the same sub-network. The network license could have a single seat on it, so only one lab member at a time can run BVA2. Or it could have N multiple seats on it, so N different lab computers (including the server itself) can run BVA2 concurrently.  If you have more questions about our software please reach out to our Scientific Consultant team and we will be happy to answer your questions.

If a Pelican case is not included for your equipment, then we recommend packing all equipment in a corrugated cardboard box, wrapping all individual components in bubble wrap/packing paper and sealing the box with water resistant tape. If you do not have the previously mentioned packing materials, then please reach out to [email protected] and we will send you any needed packing materials for free!

Brain Vision is pleased to offer complimentary shipping both ways via FedEx! If you need a FedEx pickup scheduled, then please let us know the following and we will be happy to arrange one for you.

• address for pickup
• date and time window preferred (morning or afternoon)
• backup phone number for the driver

Please provide us with the serial number (usually printed on the bottom of the housing), and send us the available log files, which are typically stored in the default directory (C:\Vision\Recorder\Log\xxx.log AND  C:\Vision\Recorder\Log\YYYYMMDD-Log.txt.) on the computer running BrainVision Recorder.

For issues with caps, please provide the serial number (located on the tag).

You can restock consumables and purchases accessories for your system using the Brain Vision webshop linked here: https://shop.brainvision.com/

Yes. We typically use Ten20 paste.

We only use the ground signal in our t-Interface 20. If your amplifier uses a reference signal, then it is necessary to connect a reference disc electrode to the subject and the amplifier. If your amplifier does not use a reference signal, then you only need to apply a disc electrode to the subject and connect to the ground input on your amplifier. In either case, you also need to connect the t-Interface 20 ground (Green wire) to the ground input of your amplifier. Prepare and place the disc electrodes as you normally would, and connect them to your amplifier as you normally would. If you do not have two connected isolated ground ports on your amplifier, you will need to use a jumper to connect both the ground conventional disc electrode and the Green wire of the t-Interface 20 output cable to ground on your amplifier. We do not include conventional disc electrodes with our system.

No. The t-Interface 20 has been designed specifically to be compatible with your current amplifier and software. The outputs of the t-Interface 20 are standard touch-proof connectors that mate with most common amplifiers on the market today.

The gain for the tEEG (tripolar EEG) signal from the t-Interface 20 is 187.5. There is no gain for the eEEG (emulated conventional EEG) signal.

Many researchers have asked us this question. What we have found is that impedance matching pastes and gels are not direct shorts like wires. We have measured the conductance of impedance matching pastes and gels and found that they are typically about the conductance of the scalp. Therefore, a millimeter separation of the tripolar electrode elements provides enough resistance in the paste that currents flowing through it cause a potential difference (Ohm’s law: V=IR). These potentials cannot be measured with conventional EEG amplifiers, so we designed our own preamplifier, the t-Interface 20, to go between the t-Leads and the conventional EEG amplifier.

• Language, Cognition
• Learning, Memory
• Sensory, Motor, Visual
• Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) Neurofeedback
• Acute Care, Ischemia
• Autism
• Animal Imaging: Rats
• Animal Imaging: Monkeys
• Child studies
• Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Studies
• Multimodal studies NIRS used simultaneously with EEG, TMS, eye-tracking, tDCS, and other modalities.
• Behavioral studies
• Motorcontrol & movement related studies
• Sports performance studies

The temporal resolution of an fNIRS device depends on its hardware as well as how its individual channels operate with respect to one another. Through time-multiplexing of the source firing, some systems can achieve anywhere between 3-25Hz depending on the optode montage. For a particular application, scan speed can be traded off against the desired coverage area (field-of-view) or source density (image resolution).

Diffuse optical tomography is a low-resolution technique owing to the physics of light propagation in scattering media. Depending on the composition and size of the target tissue, the resolution is on the order of 5-10 mm.

Light intensity is heavily attenuated in tissue and falls off exponentially from the illumination point. The maximum achievable probing depth of NIRS is limited by the illumination strength – determined by the thermal damaging threshold – and the detection sensitivity. Imaging depth strongly depends on the tissue type and the application. Typical achievable transmission limits of NIRS are about 12 cm for breast tissue, and 6 cm on the arm or leg. For brain imaging, the probing depth of NIRS is about 3 cm.