My honest opinion about the Muse S Athena for research (as a master student)

TL;DR: I’ve worn the Muse S Athena almost every day for a year, and honestly? It’s the most practical EEG device I’ve used for research. Comfy enough for hour-long sessions, packed with sensors (EEG, fNIRS, PPG, motion), and quick to set up anywhere. I’ve even recorded in participants’ homes. The catches are battery dies way faster than the promised 8 hours, the band stretches over time, the Fz reference suppresses frontal activity, and the default app is a black box (I use NeuroJournal for its researcher dashboard). Not perfect, but for fast, flexible, real-world data collection, nothing else comes close.

New to EEG wearables? Read this first.

For those of you who are new to the wearables world, you may be overwhelmed with options about which EEG device you want to use. I have spent the past year working with the Muse S Athena line from Interaxon and I have a LOT of thoughts. So, in no particular order, here is my honest review:

Comfort.

This is the selling point for Muse S Athena over other wearables I have tried. Is it extremely comfortable, no, but is it comfortable enough to wear for 1 hour a day? Certainly. At first, I was tightening the band a lot to improve signal quality as much as I could, but I have learned that you can keep things comfortably tight and recordings remain pretty clear and stable. The biggest thing I have found is that you should leave the band for several minutes to “settle in” before deciding an electrode reading is poor. You don’t necessarily have to pull the band to maximal tightness to get a good reading, but do make sure hair/glasses/jewellery are not obstructing the connection.

Wear and tear.

This is where I have the biggest bone to pick with Muse. Although the soft elastic band is comfortable, after daily wear for a few months it becomes so stretched out it is difficult to fully tighten. It can come loose, and you have to stop the recording to readjust.

Battery life.

The battery life is a bit of a let down. Muse promises up to 8 hours on a full charge—but in my experience when you are using all the sensors this is closer to an hour with a full charge. For lab experiments of 1 hour, try to have 2 devices available so that the Muse can be changed if the battery gets dangerously low (i.e., below 20%). On the bright side because the computer component is attached with a magnet, you do not have to remove and reapply the whole band. You can simply put a new computer on, re-pair to Bluetooth, and leave your participant to continue. Pairing to Bluetooth can be very draining, so if it fails after the first few attempts you can lose around 20-30% of your charge. I would love to see an option for replacing only individual components of the Muse, and especially battery replacement.

Reference electrode choice.

Another quirk of the Muse S Athena. Interaxon has opted for a Fz reference electrode, and TP9, AF7, AF8 and TP10 as active electrodes. Because of this, frontal electrode activity is often suppressed, even after applying techniques like common average referencing. I would love to see a version of the Muse released with attachable mastoid/earlobe electrodes to resolve this issue.

Multimodal sensors.

One thing I have found really positive about the Muse S Athena is the amount of sensor feedback. Besides EEG, you also have fNIRS, PPG, accelerometer, and gyroscope. In our studies, we use heart rate information as a metric of physical stress, and we have found it to be just as accurate as other high-end commercial heart rate monitors (Garmin over chest monitors and watches).

Accessibility to software.

The Muse device comes with access to their subscription model app. However, this is completely opaque, so not ideal from a research perspective. I have tried streaming via BlueMuse + LabStreamingLayer through my PC, a technique that was possible with previous models, but I had no success with the Athena for whatever reason. However, there are also paid alternatives available. Of course, NeuroJournal - which comes with the benefit of a researcher dashboard for hosting studies, but also app only software programs like MindMonitor which are available for a lower price point.

Data analysis.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that there is a Muse toolbox available for EEGLAB. An existing toolbox makes things much easier for quick data visualisations and simple analysis. I like using EEGLAB for the scroll and delete function when cleaning data.

Immediate data.

Of course, my favourite aspect of the Muse is just how quick and easy it is to gather EEG data from any location. This is not specifically a perk of Muse per se, but there are certainly more options for data collection and analysis than other devices on the market (i.e., the BrainBit). Compared to a traditional EEG setup, the ease of use means you can fit far more participants in a day, and you are much more flexible about the location of your recording. You can even go to your own participants in their homes.

That’s all folks

This was my mostly comprehensive and fully unsponsored list of what I have learnt about Muse over the past year.

If you have any of your own thoughts to add that I haven’t mentioned here—I would be happy to hear them in the comments!

Our review is completely unbiased, but we do have an affiliate link for Muse. If you are considering purchasing the Muse S Athena, it would mean a lot to us if you could support Axite. A discount is also available to you at this link: https://choosemuse.com/axite.

Originally published on Substack.