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When we hear a sound, our nervous system is detecting sound waves—pressure waves of mechanical energy traveling through a medium. The frequency of the wave is perceived as pitch, while the amplitude is perceived as loudness.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations

Published on: July 1, 2015

Smartphone-based ear-electroencephalography to study sound processing in everyday life.

Daniel Hölle¹, Martin G Bleichner^1,2

¹Neurophysiology of Everyday Life Group, Department of Psychology, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.

The European Journal of Neuroscience

|August 23, 2023

Summary

Smartphone-based ear-electroencephalography (ear-EEG) effectively quantifies sound processing in daily life. This technology can differentiate auditory attention to specific sounds, even amidst background noise, offering insights into real-world auditory perception.

Keywords:

ERPs auditory processing beyond-the-lab experimentation cEEGrid ear-EEG smartphone-based

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Recording Brain Activity with Ear-Electroencephalography

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Published on: March 31, 2023

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Auditory Perception
Signal Processing

Background:

Individual differences in sound perception and processing are common in everyday life.
Existing methods for measuring sound processing are often limited to controlled laboratory settings.
Mobile ear-electroencephalography (ear-EEG) offers a potential solution for studying auditory processing in natural environments.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the feasibility of smartphone-based ear-EEG for quantifying sound processing in everyday life.
To analyze auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to controlled stimuli under various task conditions.
To explore the detection of ERPs to naturally occurring environmental sounds.

Main Methods:

Twenty-four participants underwent ear-EEG recordings in both laboratory and office settings.
Paired-click stimuli were presented across controlled lab conditions with different auditory tasks.
Environmental sounds were recorded, and acoustic features were analyzed alongside click stimuli in the 'beyond-the-lab' condition.

Main Results:

Task-dependent differences in auditory ERPs were observed in laboratory conditions, demonstrating the differentiation of auditory attention.
ERPs comparable to lab conditions were found in the 'beyond-the-lab' setting, with N1 amplitude influenced by background noise.
No clear ERPs were consistently detected in response to environmental sounds.

Conclusions:

Smartphone-based ear-EEG is a viable tool for studying the neural processing of well-defined auditory stimuli in real-world settings.
The technology can capture task-dependent auditory attention, but detecting responses to complex environmental sounds remains challenging.
Further research is needed to refine methods for analyzing ERPs to complex, naturally occurring auditory events.