The Art of Brainwaves: A Survey on Event-Related Potential Visualization Practices

Abstract

Electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs) have been analyzed for more than 70 years. Yet, we know little about how practitioners visualize the results of their analyses. Here, we designed an online survey (n=213) targeting M/EEG practitioners from novice to expert level. Our primary goal is to better understand the visualization tools currently in use, the challenges researchers face, and their experiences and opinions on how best to display their brain data. Finally, we explored whether researchers are aware of more general visualization issues related to visualization of uncertainty and color maps. In this paper, we provide an overview of the most popular ERP visualization tools. Additionally, we found that the community does not have a unique nomenclature to refer to some plot types, and we propose a set of recommendations to name the most popular ERP plot types. Finally, we provide an analysis of practitioner feature preferences for software developers and conclude with further recommendations for ERP practitioners.