Hardware and Software Requirements

The core of this book is a large set of data processing and analysis exercises. They are designed to run on your own computer using ERPLAB Studio, a free, open-source Matlab program that provides an easy-to-use user interface to two free, open-source toolboxes, EEGLAB and ERPLAB. Although these packages are free, you will need a Matlab license to run them. Check with your institution’s Information Technology office to see if they provide free or reduced-cost Matlab licenses. It may also be possible for you to purchase an inexpensive student license. In particular, you will need:

• Matlab version 2023b or later

  • The Signal Processing Toolbox is required. If you don't have it, contact your institution's IT support department for assistance.

  • The Statistics and Machine Learning Toolbox is recommended (and required for Chapter 12).

  • To see what toolboxes are already installed in Matlab, type ver on the Matlab command line.

  • Some parts of the EEGLAB and ERPLAB code will run under Octave, a free Matlab simulator. However, Octave will not run the graphical user interface for ERPLAB Studio, which is necessary for most of the exercises in this book. You should therefore use Matlab rather than Octave.

  • EEGLAB version 2024.0 or higher (see Chapter 1 for installation instructions)

• ERPLAB version 13.1 or higher (see Chapter 1 for installation instructions)

EEGLAB and ERPLAB will run on any reasonably recent version of Mac OS, Windows, or Linux. EEGLAB and ERPLAB are designed for professional users, and they work best on a computer with a lot of RAM, a large hard drive, and a high-resolution external monitor. However, they will function adequately on a midrange laptop. Absolute minimum specifications are:

• 8 MB RAM (but more will work much better, especially for datasets with 64+ channels)

• A screen height of at least 1080 pixels (but more is better)