The Headset

NeuroJournal pairs with a Muse S Athena (from Interaxon) to record raw EEG data from your participants. We're actively working on compatible pairing with the BrainBit (Pro) headband as a second supported option.

Muse S Athena at a glance

Muse S Athena device

Older Muse device, example for electrode placement.
Image source: Tripathi & Kumar Sharma, 2023.

Disclaimer

For research use only. NeuroJournal and the Muse S Athena measure and report on brain activity. They do not diagnose, treat or provide any medical determination, and any clinical decisions should be made by a qualified professional, not from NeuroJournal data alone.

Already own a Muse?

Don't have one yet?

Subscription

NeuroJournal is a paid subscription service. To find out about the pricing models, go to our webpage (neurojournal.io). A monthly subscription gives you access to two tools: the Participant Smartphone App, and the Dashboard for data storage, analysis, and export.

Participant Smartphone App

Unlimited downloads on participant mobile devices. The NeuroJournal smartphone app is available for download via Google Play on Android devices. Participants will require a link generated by the researcher to sync their account to the dashboard.

Dashboard for data storage, analysis, and export

Limited up to 20 hours per month on basic subscription.

Want to analyse your own data?

No problem, you can download raw data as a .csv from the dashboard.

Need more recording hours?

Visit our website (neurojournal.io) to find out about higher usage tiers.

Setting Up Your Account

Payment

Once you have paid for your subscription plan via Stripe, you will receive a confirmation email in your inbox.

Didn't receive an email? Check your spam folder, or contact support at support@axitetech.com.

Setting up the dashboard

After payment, you will be automatically forwarded to the dashboard registration page. Using the same email address provided to Stripe, you may now set up your personal researcher dashboard.

Registration page

Confirming your account

After registering, you'll receive a confirmation email. Open it and confirm your account before continuing.

What you'll see right after registering

Setting up two factor authentication

To log in to your dashboard, you'll also need to set up two factor authentication (2FA). Any authenticator app works, for example Google Authenticator, Authy, or 1Password. Scan the QR code shown during setup with your chosen app, then enter the code it generates to confirm.

Creating a Study

1. Click "New study"From your dashboard home screen.
2. Name your studyThis is what you'll see listed on your dashboard — participants never see it.
3. Set your recording parameters[e.g. session length, number of sessions per participant]
4. SaveYour study now appears on your dashboard, ready for participants.

Prefer to watch instead? See the video walkthrough on the Video Tutorials page.

Inviting Your Participants

Every participant starts as an entry in your study's participant list. From there, you can generate a unique ID for them and send a ready made invite email in just a few clicks.

Open your study

From the study overview, select the study you'd like to invite participants for and click View study.

Manage participants

On the study page, click Manage inactive participants to see everyone who hasn't registered yet or been assigned a QR code. From here, click Add participant to generate a new participant ID, which appears as its own row, ready to invite.

The participant list, with Add participant in the top right

Send the invite

Click Invite next to a participant's row to open the invite email window. You can adjust the subject and message before sending, and switch between English and Dutch. NeuroJournal attaches that participant's QR code to the email automatically, and doesn't save their email address once it's sent.

The invite email window, ready to send

What the participant receives

The email walks them through installing the app and joining the study, with their personal QR code attached and their participant ID included as a backup if they'd rather enter it manually.

The invite email as the participant sees it

Prefer to watch instead? See the video walkthrough on the Video Tutorials page.

Viewing Participant Data

Every participant has their own page, opened from Manage participants. It brings together their details, a quick overview of their recording activity, and every individual session.

A participant's page: details, overview, and their session list

The Details card shows the participant ID, signup date, and device type, along with any tags you've added, useful for marking things like who recruited them or which cohort they belong to. The Overview strip gives a quick health check at a glance: total sessions recorded, median session quality, average session duration, and their most recent recording. Below that, the Sessions table lists every individual recording, each with its own signal quality score, tags, and an export action, either Download data or Request data depending on the session, more on that distinction on the Exporting Data page.

Signal Quality & EEG Features

Opening a session gives you several different views into the recorded signal, from the raw waveform through to processed brain wave activity and physiology.

Raw EEG

Each of the four channels, TP9 and TP10 behind the ears, AF7 and AF8 at the front, is plotted separately with its own Good or Poor signal quality badge, so you can spot a bad electrode at a glance before digging further.

Raw EEG, per channel, with a quality badge for each

Processed EEG

The processed view steps through the recording window by window, flagging any window with poor signal quality directly on the chart so you can see exactly where in the session the data is less reliable, rather than only getting one quality score for the whole session.

Processed EEG, paged by window, with poor quality windows flagged

Spectrogram

Shows how power at each frequency changes over the course of the session, per channel, useful for spotting patterns that a single waveform trace won't make obvious.

Spectrogram, per channel

Brain wave activity

Mean band power over time, broken into the standard frequency bands (delta, theta, alpha, and further bands below), selectable per channel, each with a trimmed mean for the session.

Brain wave activity, mean band power over time

Motion & physiology

Alongside the EEG signal itself, you can also review accelerometer, gyroscope, and heart rate (PPG) data for the same session, each with its own trimmed mean.

Motion and physiology: accelerometer, gyroscope and heart rate

Prefer to watch instead? See the video walkthrough on the Video Tutorials page.

Exporting Data

Data can be exported at a few different levels: a single session, everything for one participant, or specific data types across a participant's whole history.

Requesting vs downloading

Every EEG recording needs to be requested before it can be downloaded. A session shows Request data until that request has been fulfilled, at which point it switches to Download data. For a participant's full EEG history at once, use Request participant EEG data at the top of their page rather than requesting session by session. Journal entries (mood, stress, sleep and custom tags) and tap data (passive smartphone interaction patterns) are exported separately, using Export journal data and Export tap data.

Request and download actions, at both the session and participant level

What a raw export contains

A single session's raw export isn't one file, it's five: separate CSVs for accelerometer, EEG, fNIRS, gyroscope, and an hsi file with headset signal information.

Five files from a single session export

Prefer to watch instead? See the video walkthrough on the Video Tutorials page.

NeuroJournal (app)

NeuroJournal is designed so participants can record their own EEG without a researcher present, so sessions can happen anywhere, including at home. It's included here so you can recognise what a participant is looking at if they ever reach out with a question.

Connecting the headset

Starting a recording prompts the participant to connect their Muse S Athena. Tapping the headset icon walks them through pairing.

Tap the icon to connect

Checking signal quality

Once connected, the app checks each electrode automatically and signals connection quality using colour, along with quick tips if anything needs adjusting, like moving away from electrical outlets or turning off nearby electronics, the same advice we give in the FAQ.

Checking signal quality, colour coded per electrode

Ready to record

Once the signal check passes, the status changes to Connected and the app shows Ready to record, with battery level visible and the Start Recording button now active.

Connected and ready to record

During a recording

While recording, participants see a live readout for each electrode, marked Optimal when the signal is stable, along with a running timer. They can lock their phone or switch apps since background tracking keeps the session going, and can stop and save whenever they're done.

A recording in progress, with live signal per electrode

Video Tutorials

FAQ

Getting Started

Devices & Compatibility

Studies & Participants

Troubleshooting & Data Issues

Data & Exports

Data Privacy, Security & Medical Use

Billing & Plans

Still stuck? Email us at support@axitetech.com and we'll get back to you. We typically respond within one business day.

Referencing NeuroJournal

If NeuroJournal contributed to your research, please cite it as software: