Oh, sorry. Simulink and Matlab come as a package in our student version, I assumed they were all like that.
We'll be doing lots of different things...our focus is probably more on ERP than on EEG, but I'll need to be able to do both. Within that framework, nothing unusual. Just comparing typical ERP components across participants. PCA, spherical spline, etc. All pretty commonplace stuff. Truth be told I don't know enough about it to give you an exact answer right now - one of my reasons for wanting to get the program is I'm fairly new to this area and I just got back from a conference that made me realize how little I actually know so picking up the program so I can play around with it at home would hopefully help me get my act together.
I've had EEGlab recommended to me for use within matlab, which should be helpful for alot of what we'd need and is free as far as I know.
We've got neuroscan in the lab, and it is lovely. I think it costs in the tens of thousands of dollars though so I don't expect to be buying a copy until 7-8 years from now when I'm negotiating a startup package
The student version of matlab is $100, which is still on the high end of my budget if that puts things in perspective
However, as long as it isn't overly limiting in what you can do, I'm more than happy to invest that. Its getting embarassing how little I know about the stuff, and I made a fool out of myself at more than one poster at the conference. I bought Luck's book to get me started, borrowed another more advanced one, and hopefully between that and some messing around with Matlab I can fix this and not come across as a complete ***** next year