African Brain Data Network EEG workshop in Nigeria

Together with the African Brain Data Network we are organizing an intensive one-week EEG Workshop in Nigeria (9-14 June, 2025) designed to empower researchers across Africa with hands-on training and foundational knowledge in Electroencephalography (EEG). EEG is a powerful, non-invasive tool for studying brain activity and advancing neurotechnological research.

This workshop aims to:

  • Provide foundational knowledge about EEG technology and applications.
  • Offer hands-on training in experimental design, EEG data collection, processing, and analysis.
  • Facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers across Africa.
  • Discuss the relevance of EEG research in addressing African health and societal challenges.

During this workshop, you will get:

  • Expert-led lectures on EEG principles, signal processing, and analysis.
  • Practical sessions on EEG equipment setup and data acquisition.
  • Hands-on training in data analysis using popular tools and platforms.
  • Networking opportunities with leading researchers and peers.
  • Discussions on ethics, contextualization of neurotechnological research in Africa.

Participants will bring a laptop with a recent web browser for the hands-on data analysis sessions. We will provide WiFi and the analysis will be done using online and open-source tools, so you don’t need special software on your laptop.

Company support

We would like to thank TMSi, an Artinis company, for borrowing us an 64-channel SAGA EEG system for the practical hands-on sessions.

We would like to thank MathWorks for providing the licenses to run MATLAB in the cloud for the data analysis hands-on sessions.

Registration

Since it is a workshop with a hands-on format, we have a limited number of seats available. Pre-registration is now closed and we will make a selection of interested candidates with the aim to maximize the impact of the training.

Practicalities

See the African Brain Data Network homepage for up to date information. If you have any queries please contact africanbraindatanetwork@gmail.com.

Who

It is organized by Damian Eke, Eberechi Wogu, Victor Owoyele, Ore Ogundipe, Robert Oostenveld, Mikkel C. Vinding, and various others help with the organization.

The lectures and hands-on sessions will be presented by Robert Oostenveld from Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and Mikkel C. Vinding from University of Copenhagen , Denmark. Both Robert and Mikkel have extensive experience with EEG, including designing the experiments, doing recordings, and analyzing data. You can find their publications here and here.

When

9-14 June, 2025

Where

Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Program

Day-by-Day Overview:

Monday – Introduction & EEG Basics

The week begins with orientation and practical information, followed by foundational topics: what EEG is, its advantages over other neuroimaging techniques, and its applications in clinical, developmental, and cognitive research. Special emphasis is placed on African-specific challenges, such as dealing with natural hairstyles and electrode types. Sessions also experimental design and and stimulus control.

  • registration and welcome
  • introduction and format (lecture by Robert)
  • background on EEG - part 1 (lecture by Mikkel, video)
  • lunch
  • background on EEG - part 2 (lecture by Mikkel, video)
  • EEG in Africa (lecture by Robert, video)
  • experimental design part A (lecture by Mikkel, video)
  • experimental design Q&A (discussion)

Tuesday – Experimental Design & EEG Recording

EEG hardware, electrodes, caps and electrode placement is discussed. Hands-on sessions guide participants through installing stimulus software (e.g., PsychoPy), designing behavioral tasks, and handling hardware (e.g., EEG caps, electrodes, and cleaning). Participants split into groups to practice recording EEG, focusing on setup, troubleshooting, ethical handling, and documentation.

  • how does an EEG system work (lecture by Robert, video)
  • recording of EEG (hands-on)
  • lunch
  • experimental design part B (lecture by Mikkel, video)
  • designing a task and recording it (hands-on)

Wednesday – EEG Data, Analysis Tools & Preprocessing

The precise timing of the experimental task and stimuli with the EEG is presented and demonstrated.Lectures cover EEG data formats, metadata (e.g., BIDS), and an overview of the FieldTrip toolbox and alternatives. Experimental design essentials, noise and typical artifacts, and the steps in preprocessing of EEG data such as filtering and rereferencing are presented, followed by practical exercises.

  • synchronisation and triggers (lecture by Robert, video)
  • synchronisation and triggers (demonstration)
  • where to get EEG data (lecture by Robert, video)
  • what software to use for EEG analysis (lecture by Robert, video)
  • using MATLAB online (a few instructions by Robert)
  • lunch
  • preprocessing of EEG (lecture by Robert, video)
  • preprocessing of EEG (hands-on)
  • preprocessing of EEG (demonstration)

Thursday – Event Related Potentials and Ethics

The rationale and analysis of event-related potentials (ERP) are presented, with applications to sensory and cognitive processes. The ERP difference wave is discussed, and participants do the preprocessing and compute ERPs in a task-based EEG dataset, contrasting visual and auditory conditions. Ethics, informed consent, incidental findings and adversial effects are presented, followed by a presentation and discussion on translating European practices to the African situation.

  • EEG and ethics (lecture by Robert, video)
  • analysis of ERPs (lecture by Robert, video)
  • lunch
  • analysis of ERPs (hands-on)
  • analysis of ERPs (demonstration)
  • EEG and ethics - the African perspective (lecture by Damian, video)

Friday – Frequency Analysis & Source Localization

Methods to localize the underlying brain activity from the topographical ERP distribution are presented. Frequency analysis is explained and participants explore frequency-based EEG analysis (e.g., eyes open vs. closed, group comparisons). Hands-on experience with spectral analysis is provided.

  • source localization (lecture by Robert, video)
  • frequency analysis (lecture by Robert, video)
  • lunch
  • frequency analysis (hands-on)
  • frequency analysis (demonstration)
  • real-time analysis and BCI (lecture by Robert, video)
  • continue with hands-on preprocessing, ERPs, or frequency analysis
  • where to go from here (lecture by Mikkel, video)

Saturday – Wrap-up & Additional Practice

The final day is flexible, used to finalize lectures of previous days, for review, additional practice, or wrapping up unfinished work. Topics that can be presented are statistical approaches and experimental design types. Reflections on the week’s learning and experiences conclude the course.

  • reflections on EEG research (lecture by Robert and discussions)
  • Q&A on designing the task and the analysis (general discussion)
  • designing and synchronizing a task (hands-on)
  • recording of EEG (hands-on)

Slides

To keep track of all lectures for ourselves, we have numbered them in the order of the presentations. The full list of PDF slides for all lectures and for the two virtual lab-tour movies is here:

Video recordings

We have recorded most lectures on video. You can find them on our YouTube channel and they are listed here.

Questions

Please ask questions during or after the lectures. Your questions are also relevant for the other participants, who will learn from them as well. If you want, you can also type your questions in a this shared google doc. Feel free to add your name, or type your question anonymously. We will address the questions during the day and/or towards the end of the afternoon.

How to prepare

Installing FieldTrip and the data

Open MATLAB online and enter the following in the command window to download and unzip FieldTrip and the data. After that, you have to set up FieldTrip and change to the data directory.

unzip('https://download.fieldtriptoolbox.org/workshop/nigeria2025/fieldtrip-20250517.zip')
unzip('https://download.fieldtriptoolbox.org/workshop/nigeria2025/data.zip')

addpath('/MATLAB Drive/fieldtrip-20250517')
ft_defaults
cd('/MATLAB Drive/data')

Restarting MATLAB online

Whenever you restart MATLAB or when you are kicked out because of poor internet connectivity, you have to set up FieldTrip again.

addpath('/MATLAB Drive/fieldtrip-20250517')
ft_defaults
cd('/MATLAB Drive/data')

It is important to save your edited m-files regularly, so that you can continue when you reconnect.

Suggested reading material

EEG background

  • Buzsáki, G., Anastassiou, C. A., & Koch, C. (2012). The origin of extracellular fields and currents—EEG, ECoG, LFP and spikes. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 13(6), 407–420.
  • Lopes da Silva, F. (2013). EEG and MEG: Relevance to Neuroscience. Neuron, 80(5), 1112–1128.
  • Luck, S. J. (2014). An introduction to the event-related potential technique (Second edition). The MIT Press.

Software

  • Oostenveld, R., Fries, P., Maris, E., & Schoffelen, J.-M. (2011). FieldTrip: Open Source Software for Advanced Analysis of MEG, EEG, and Invasive Electrophysiological Data. Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience, 2011, 1–9.
  • Peirce, J., Gray, J. R., Simpson, S., MacAskill, M., Höchenberger, R., Sogo, H., Kastman, E., & Lindeløv, J. K. (2019). PsychoPy2: Experiments in behavior made easy. Behavior Research Methods, 51(1), 195–203.

EEG in Africa

  • Parker, T. C., & Ricard, J. A. (2022). Structural racism in neuroimaging: Perspectives and solutions. The Lancet Psychiatry, 9(5), e22.
  • Caspar, E. A. (2024). Guidelines for Inclusive and Diverse Human Neuroscience Research Practices. The Journal of Neuroscience, 44(48), e1971242024.
  • Köhler, J., Reis, A. A., & Saxena, A. (2021). A survey of national ethics and bioethics committees. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 99(2), 138–147.
  • TRUST. (2018). The TRUST code -A Global Code of Conduct for Equitable Research Partnerships (Version 1). TRUST.
  • The Inclusive EEG Handbook. (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2025, from https://www.inclusiveneuro.com/home.
  • Etienne, A., Laroia, T., Weigle, H., Afelin, A., Kelly, S. K., Krishnan, A., & Grover, P. (2020). Novel Electrodes for Reliable EEG Recordings on Coarse and Curly Hair. BioRxiv.
 

Tags: nigeria2025