BCIwiki (bciwiki.com) — A semi-dry Smarting mobile EEG system using saline-sponge electrodes detected individual-level N100 and P300 auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) in 34 of 36 subject-level tests, compared with 34 of 40 for a wired, gel-based 64-channel BioSemi lab system, Korisky and colleagues reported in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience in 2026 (doi:10.3389/fnhum.2026.1763477). Both systems were recorded in the same shielded laboratory, with 9 and 10 participants respectively, according to MBrainTrain, which makes Smarting.
Participants performed a three-sound auditory oddball task with frequent Standard tones (70%) and rare Target tones and Novel sounds (15% each). Experiment 1 compared four EEG systems, each with different participants and partly different recording environments, and the authors caution that it is not a head-to-head hardware comparison. Smarting and BioSemi were recorded in the same room with the same stimulus delivery. Experiment 2, a test-retest reliability study with 38 participants, used BioSemi only.
Using spatial clustering across electrodes, Smarting detected responses in 94% of tests and BioSemi in 85%. The study did not test the difference statistically, and one participant shifts a percentage by 10-11 points. With single-electrode temporal clustering, Smarting detected the N100 in 78%, 100% and 89% of participants for Standard, Target and Novel sounds, versus 70% for each with BioSemi. Its P300 detection with that method was 44%, or 4 of 9 participants, the lowest of the four systems, against 8 of 9 with spatial clustering. Group ERPs from Smarting correlated with BioSemi's at r = 0.73 for Standard, r = 0.87 for Novel and r = 0.41 for Target sounds, and waveform typicality did not differ significantly (β = 0.08, p = 0.144).
In its commentary, MBrainTrain said the 9-person Smarting sample supports feasibility rather than precise performance estimates, and that cap fit strongly affects semi-dry electrodes. Smarting rejected 7.5% of trials, versus 4.7% for BioSemi and 1.8% for DSI-24, though thresholds were set per system. The company said the authors, from Bar-Ilan University and Stanford, identified Smarting as one of two research-grade mobile systems whose signal quality their results validate.