An inexpensive circuit for beta, alpha, theta,

or delta EEG biofeedback *

HOWARD I. THORSHEIM using three amplifier stages, with appropriate choices for
Saint Olaf College. Northfield. Minnesota 55057 resistor and capacitor values, provides a unity-gain filter
with adjustable center frequency (fo) and selectivity (Q).
and
Hence, four of the quad operational amplifiers provide
DONALD E. ANDERSON and LLOYD C. SCHULTZ four separate bands, with the last amplifier stage on each
G. T. Schjeldahl Company. Northfield Minnesota 55057 chip available for isolation from the output circuit as a
unity-gain isolation amplifier.
An inexpensive circuit is described for EEG For flexibility, we wished to select a given signal level
biofeedback or measurement. The circuit is designed to at the output of a given filter to enable a feedback
interface easily with most basic EEG machines. It taps
the output from a single recording channel of the basic "signal. In order to eliminate artifacts and very short
EEG instrument and provides the following for each pulse activation, this circuit changes output state only if
EEG band (beta, alpha, theta, and delta): (a) very a signal level above a selectable threshold is maintained
selective bandpass discrimination, (b) variable center for several cycles at the center frequency or for
frequency, (c) variable threshold at which feedback will
be provided, or the measurement made, and (d) use with
approximately I sec. Thus, the circuit rectifies the
any biofeedback stimulus or measurement device that output of the buffer amplifier and presents the output
one wishes to switch contingent with S's EEG rhythms. voltages as a dc level across a capacitor shunted by a
resistor, so that the de level can follow slowly changing
Although solid state components have brought the signals but not individual cycles at the filter's center
price of basic EEG apparatus down. feedback apparatus frequency. The de level is compared with a second dc
has remained expensive. Furthermore, the response (threshold) level presented as a differential input of
characteristics of the few inexpensive models are not another operational amplifier. one of four in a fifth chip.
adequate for most research purposes. Typical limitations for each band. The amplifier operates in high gain
are filter circuits incapable of very selective bandpass (without feedback), so it acts as a switch. The output IS
discrimination, lack of provision for varying the center saturated and positive if the reference signal at the
frequency, no option for setting the threshold at which noninverting signal exceeds the second ftlter output and
feedback will be provided, a single type feedback (e.g.. a is driven to zero if the filter output applied to the
tone) to which the apparatus is locked, and virtually no inverting input exceeds the reference signal.
simple way to interface the components. The output is used to switch a DPDT relay, one per
The circuit presented here was designed to eliminate band. so that a variety of output signaling devicescan be
such problems inexpensively. This feedback circuit can energized. To provide enough current-handling
be mated to any EEG machine and its terminal relays capability to energize the relay coil, a single transistor is
allow lights, tones, timers. etc. to be switched in used at the output of the threshold-sensing operational
conjunction with the activation of specific EEG band amplifiers. In the mode used, this relay is nannally
frequencies (delta, theta, alpha, and beta). . closed when no EEG signal above threshold is sensed
In designing this circuit, the functions illustrated in through the filter and opens when an above-threshold
Fig. I were isolated. signal is detected.
An input attenuator common to all channels The design of the bandpass filters is described as
permitted the use of the circuit with preamplifiers of follows. Any single-stage operational amplifier with
different output levels. In our application, the output of input impedance Z, and feedback impedance Zf has an
a Narco-Bio CA-200 Physiograph "4" channel amplifier output voltage whose amplitude and phase are described
was used: this provided a high-level signal (± 30 V) by Eq. I
superimposed on a -45-V de level. Since the filters were
designed for Gain I and saturate at approximately
±10 V, a variable attenuator was used to decrease the (1)
input signal to approximately ±2 V. The de level is
blocked by a capacitor at the input of the circuit. as illustrated in Fig. 2. If one could easily obtain the
The basic filter for each frequency consists of two values of inductance L and capacitance C, the circuit of
new quad operational amplifiers (four operational Fig. 3 would have the output/input relationship
amplifiers packaged on a single chip). A feedback circuit described in Eq. I, but with the complex impedance of
the feedback circuit given by Eq. 2.
'This work was supported in part by National Science
Foundation Grant GY-6887. (2)

Behav. Res. Meth. & Instru., 1974, Vol. 6 (1) 33

 ::~.re.hc.:: ::&:-:Iil :cr IRI:ay
:::'.=ri:::i::a:~:'. :::-:I':l:lrI

i 00 A
bt_ 6

Fig. l. Basic circuit concept for a

four-band system.

• s
bt_1

~:':.I ,\-':'4::: ~?·a::.~ .ai:-:

'~':".Hy 0:'11: qu.cl op....=p
?er :':':.~:'Ie: I :?-a=p' !cr ecue channlls
3 c;:. eac:-: ', I ~-S a~;: ( t~r .. holcl.
~ .d.;-.:.s:.:::e . ae r c1':i;:; acl;ultabla)

L
where w = 21Tf. Equation 2 can be rewritten as Eq. 3. •
Zf = RQI{I + jQ[(w/wo) - (wo/w)l), (3) c
where Wo = l/vLoC o and Q = wo~C.
•
This is the most convenient form for recognizing the
salient features of a pass-band filter; the center
frequency gain (at f = fo) is Ao = - RQ /Rj, and the gain
falls off both above and below fo in a normalized form.
Such a filter response can be characterized rather
conveniently in terms of the lower half-powerfrequency
fQ and the upper half-power frequency fh . At each of E
these frequencies lEo I has decreased to 0.707 of the o
value of lEo I at the resonant frequency fo. It can be
shown that fo should be set at fo = (f h + fQ)/2, and Q
should be set at Q = (fQ + fh)/[2(fQ - fh ) ] to fit the
desired bands.
The actual feedback circuit used is illustrated in
Fig. 4. Brandt (1972) has shown that the output
response for this circuit is the same as that shown in Fig. 3. Resonant circuit feedback stage.
Fig. 3, if the following relations are made: Lo = R'RfC';
Co =C,: RQ = R1 ·

Z C c'
f I

E
o

U) '" IJ~ • Q ::: lR"c IR'R c: • and A (w ) '" J. IR

• f 1 1 1 f • 1 f

Fig. 2. Simple negative feedback amplifier stage. Fig. 4. Bi-quad active filter.

34 Behav. Res. Meth. & Instru., 1974, Vol. 6 (1)

 A derailed design of any given filter can now be Table 1
undertaken. given a choice of center frequency (1'0) and Filler Frequency-Response Limits
selectivity Q (or Of = fh ~ f~). For this application, it Filter
was desired that R' (which sets the center frequency)
Delta ~6) I 4
and R] (which sets Q or of) should be adjustable Theta ~) 4 8
potentiometers so that different values could be set Alpha (a) 8 12
during use. Thus. for each of the four bands, fQ and fh Beta ~) 13 20
were first selected. The values selected for the four EEG

Table 2
Design Values for 3-dB and 2O-dB Drop-Off at Band Edges

Q, Q 20 C R' R, (Q3) R. (Q, 0)

Filter f0 (3 dB) (20 dB) (j1F) (K) (K) (K)

Delta 2.5 083 8.29 10 637 53 1318

Theta 6.0 15 14.93 0.5 53.0 79.5 li87
Alpha 10.0 1.25 12.44 025 63.7 79.6 990
Beta 16.5 236 23.5 0.1 965 228 2879

e-

~
i
00<

r~ r-~--<'. I

W'?r~'ol, ",.~',- f)f-

r , ,.....-,-.+J

.oo«
'--_+---L-- -'-_..L..I.-J
. ~,.,

..

-'t·~'"itI ~;'~ -r-' '"~'

-. "T -.
-;:-
-0'
.H Y
7:;
,"'C"9
,

'"
()lII alill'Pi, ,- ~
"Q-'~J, 1II{.)401'"

Fig. 5. The complete circuit.

bands are presented in Table 1. The values selected set that which would decrease lEI to 0.707 of midband at
the design center value of 1'0 and hence R' for each filter either band edge. that is. a 3-dB drop. More sensitivity
and of R 1 (from fQ and f h ) . However. setting R I from might demand that. for example. a 20-dB drop be set at
the values of Table I would restrict the sensitivity to f h and fQ. that IS. as shown in Eq. 4,

Behav, Res. Meth. & Instru., 1974, Vol. 6 (1) 35

 IE/EoIf
c = O.I(E/Eo)f 0
Table 3 f (4 )
h·
Parts List and Costs
Design Values Unit Total As a consequence, design values were determined both
Values Used Quantity Cost Cost for 3- and 20-dB drop-offs at the band edges. Values for
1 mel! 1 meg 9 .12 1.98 the four bands are presented in Table 2.
118 K - 220 K 1 .26 .26 The final circuit must. of course, make selected
130 K 230 K 1 .26 .26 compromises with available resistor and capacitor values.
97 K lOOK 1 .26 .26 In addition. bias circuits must be applied to the
136K 150K 1 .26 .26
80K 82 K 5 .22 1.10
noninverting inputs to set the operating points of each
50K 47 K 1 .26 .26 operational amplifier stage near the middle of its
194 K 220 K 1 .26 .26 dynamic range (half of the single-ended power supply
100 K 100 K 24 .22 5.28 voltages).
10K 10 K 4 .26 1.04 The circuit shown in Fig. 5 represents the
1.5K 1.5K 4 .26 1.04
64K 68 K 3 .26 .78 embodiment of all of the functions shown earlier in
71 K 68 K 1 .26 .26 Fig. I. Each of the bands can be tuned over the center
53 K 47 K 4 .26 1.04 frequencies from fQ to fh . The selectivity of the channel
16.5 K 27 K 1 .26 .26 (Q) can be adjusted to reject band-edge voltage
127 K 150 K 1 .26 .26
40 K 39 K 2 .26 .52
amplitudes 10 times the center sensitivity.
106 K 100 K 1 .26 .26 Choice of time constant in the discriminator sections
118K 150 K 1 .26 .26 (filter output) is around 1 sec. This time constant can be
lOj,lF 10 j,lF 1 .72 .72 varied by increasing or decreasing the resistor in parallel
.1 j,lF .1 j,lF 2 .54 1.08 with the capacitor input to the final operational
1.0j,lF 1.0j,lF 10 .51 5.10 amplifier.
.25 j,lF .25 j,lF 2 .21 042
.5 j,lF
The circuit was fabricated using Motorola MC3401 P
A7/JF 2 .21 042
quad operational amplifiers. A substitution on a
1 meg pot 1 meg pot 4 1.95 7.80 pin-for-pin basis is the National Semiconductor LM3900
2.5 meg pot 1 meg pot 1 1.95 1.95
91G K 1 meg pot 1.95 1.95
quad operational amplifier. Total parts cost, at unit
1
1.1 meg pot 1 meg pot 1 1.95 1.95 quantities, for all four bands as shown in Fig. 5 is
40 K pot 50 K pot 1 1.95 1.95 574.86. A total parts list. together with unit costs, is
1.3 meg pot 1 meg pot 1 1.95 1.95 presented in Table 3.
120 K pot 200 K pot 1 1.95 1.95
1N5059 1N5059 8 .36 2.88
2N4945 2N4945 4 040 1.60
~tc3401P ~lC3401P 5 1.10 5.50 REFERENCES
Brandt, R. Active resonators save steps in designing active filters.
12 V relay 12 V relay 4 3.25 13.00 Electronics, April 24, 1972, 106·110.
Vector board 9.00
(Received for publication July 3,1973;
Total Cost S74.86 revision received October 24. 1973.)

36 Behav. Res. Meth. & Instru., 1974, Vol. 6 (1)