Participation
We are constantly looking for people with different backgrounds to participate in our experiments. If you live in or are about to visit Helsinki and are interested in participating, please contact us. The best way to contact us is by sending us e-mail: 
In your e-mail, please mention your name, age, contact details, and your musical background (if any). We are also occasionally looking for babies and children to participate in child-friendly studies conducted in our babylab. If you are interested in participating with your child, please mention the age of your child in your e-mail.
Instructions for participants
Please take care to arrive in good time. If you are going to be late, please inform the experimenter by phone. In some studies, you may be asked to fill in forms or questionnaires in advance. If so, please remember to bring the forms with you.
You do not need to prepare for the experiment in any particular way, unless the experimenter has given you special instructions about this. However, we hope you won't show up very tired, intoxicated or ill. If you aren't feeling well or are tired, simply contact the experimenter to reschedule.
If you use contact lenses, we would prefer you to bring glasses instead and leave the contact lenses at home.
Should your experiment take place outside the office hours (mon-fri 08-16), the door into the department may be locked. Under these circumstances, please make sure that you have the experimenter's phone number.
If you want more details about the study you're going to participate in, please contact us.
What happens during the study
The following text is about our EEG studies. Occasionally, we use behavioural and other measures instead of EEG. When participating in these studies, you will receive separate instructions regarding the participation.
Prior to the start of the experiment, we will place an electrode cap on you. In order to measure the electrical activity of your brain, we connect electrodes to your scalp with a bit of water soluble gel. The preparations usually take approximately 20 minutes.
The electrode cap used in most of our brain measurements.
Experiments usually consist of different parts, out of which some may include an active task and in others you just listen to sounds passively. In active tasks, you will be presented different types of stimuli and you need to react to them in some manner, such as by pressing a button. Passive tasks require you to do nothing – usually you are simply instructed to watch a movie without sounds for the duration of the task.
As a research method, EEG (electroencephalography) is quick, non-invasive, and safe. The only inconvience that you may experience is the small amount of water soluble gel left in your hair. Due to this, you can use the shower and wash your hair after the study. We provide you with shampoo and a towel.
If the experiment is long and you feel tired, please ask for a break. We will also offer you some coffee/tea and a small snack
Privacy and the recorded data
When participating, you will be asked to read and sign a consent form, which allow the researcher to use the recorded data for a scientific purpose. In most of our studies, we do not inspect data recorded from individual subjects but rather averages of a larger group. If detailed analysis and publication of individual data is deemed necessary, all the data are both analysed and reported anonymously.
Reward for participating
The most common reward we offer are movie ticket. In general, you get one ticket for every 90 minutes that the experiment takes. It is possible get a small amount of money instead, but in that case taxes will be reduced.