Day-by-day schedule

Eight sessions, about six hours in total. Tick them off as you go. The order matters: each hands-on session reuses the previous one's data and code.

Each session is 30-45 minutes; give the two hands-on sessions (3 and 6) a dedicated 60-90 minute block. Pair up where it helps: one person drives, the other reads the docs.

gantt
    dateFormat  YYYY-MM-DD
    axisFormat  %b %d
    section Week 1 · what EEG is
    S1 Signal origin            :s1, 2026-10-16, 1d
    S2 Bands and electrodes     :s2, 2026-10-17, 1d
    S3 Lab 1 alpha peak         :crit, s3, 2026-10-19, 1d
    S4 Artifacts cheat sheet    :s4, 2026-10-21, 1d
    section Week 2 · working with the signal
    S5 Filtering and reference  :s5, 2026-10-23, 1d
    S6 Lab 2 clean and measure  :crit, s6, 2026-10-26, 1d
    S7 Neurofeedback loop       :s7, 2026-10-27, 1d
    S8 HRV and orientation      :s8, 2026-10-29, 1d

The dates are suggestions. Spread the sessions however suits you inside each week.

Week 1 (Oct 16-22): what EEG is, and your first plot #

By the end of Week 1 you should be able to look at a raw EEG trace and say where the signal comes from, which rhythm you are looking at, which electrode you are looking at, and whether a bump is brain or artifact.

• [ ] Session 1 (30 min): Module 00, Start here and Module 01, Where the signal comes from.
  • Watch 2-Minute Neuroscience: EEG, then Cohen's "Introduction to EEG time series" (ANTS playlist, lecture 1).
  • Produce: your notes file in the project repo, started from the notes template.
• [ ] Session 2 (45 min): Module 02, Frequency bands and Module 03, Electrodes and montages.
  • Read the PURSUE "Basics of EEG & ERPs" deck (Module 1) and the 10-20 system page.
  • Produce: close the browser and sketch a head with Fp1, Fp2, F3, Fz, F4, C3, Cz, C4, P3, Pz, P4, O1, O2, T3/T7, T4/T8 from memory. Check it against the electrode figure in Module 03.
• [ ] Session 3 (60-90 min): Module 04, Reading a raw trace and Module 06, Lab 1: find the alpha peak.
  • Install MNE-Python (pip install -r code/requirements.txt in a fresh virtual environment) and run the eyes-open vs eyes-closed script.
  • Produce: the two spectra, plus screenshots of one blink and one muscle burst, saved to your notes.
• [ ] Session 4 (20-30 min): Module 05, Artifacts field guide.
  • Watch the EEGLAB workshop video "Removing Artifactual Components" (Delorme, on the Online EEGLAB Workshop page) or Keil's "EEG Data Analysis Part 3 - Basics" (on the FieldTrip video page).
  • Produce: a one-page artifact cheat sheet: blink, eye movement, muscle, heartbeat, line noise, electrode pop. What each looks like and where. The notes template has a table to fill in.

Week 2 (Oct 23-29): cleaning, features, and the feedback loop #

Week 2 turns "I can see alpha" into "I can clean a recording and compute numbers from it".

• [ ] Session 5 (45 min): Module 07, Filtering, Module 08, Re-referencing, and the first half of Module 10, Spectral features.
  • Read the MNE filtering and reference tutorials. Watch one of Cohen's "Static spectral analysis" lectures.
  • Produce: two sentences in your notes: what a high-pass at 1 Hz removes, and why a notch at 60 Hz is needed in Toronto.
• [ ] Session 6 (60-90 min): Module 09, Artifact handling and Module 12, Lab 2: clean and measure. Skim Module 11, Epochs and ERPs for vocabulary.
  • Run the ICA hands-on: identify and remove the blink component, compute alpha power per channel.
  • Produce: three sentences: which component you removed and how you knew, what changed in the frontal channels after removal, and which three channels have the highest alpha power.
• [ ] Session 7 (50 min): Module 13, The neurofeedback loop.
  • Read the first half of Enriquez-Geppert et al. (2017). Run python code/labs/m13_neurofeedback_replay.py.
  • Produce: draw the five-step neurofeedback loop from memory, and write one paragraph on how a reward/inhibit protocol works.
• [ ] Session 8 (40 min): Module 14, HRV basics and Module 15, Divergence orientation.
  • Read the metrics section of Shaffer and Ginsberg (2017). Optional: pip install neurokit2 and run python code/labs/m14_hrv.py, or the HRV example from the NeuroKit2 docs on the built-in sample ECG.
  • Produce: the list of questions you want to ask Alex.

Before the first meeting #

• [ ] Go through Checkpoints and mark anything you cannot do yet. Bring the list, your notes file, and your lab outputs.

After the two weeks #

Once the checkpoints are ticked, pick the branch that matches your project in Project branches: heart-brain correlation, ASR/ICA validation, or neurally controlled game design. None of it is in the six-hour budget.

If you fall behind #

Do the hands-on sessions (3 and 6) and the vocabulary in Module 15 first. Everything else can be caught up with the resource library afterwards. You do not need to finish every linked resource; the modules say what to read, watch, or run, and the library is the longer menu.