Objective Electroencephalography (EEG) serves as a non-invasive electrophysiological monitoring technique employed to record brain electrical activity. Nonetheless, traditional EEG electrodes are susceptible to reference activation influences and exhibit limited spatial resolution. Laplacian electrodes, devoid of reference dependencies, possess the potential to amplify the spatial resolution of EEG recordings. Anchored in the utilization of bipolar concentric ring Laplacian electrodes, this study delves into the autonomous referencing attributes intrinsic to Laplacian electrodes. Furthermore, it conducts a comparison of spatial resolution disparities between Laplacian electrodes and their conventional counterparts.Methods A three-dimensional (3D) hemispherical tank experiment was conducted utilizing 21 Ag/AgCl bipolar concentric ring Laplacian electrodes to simulate whole-brain signal acquisitions. A sinusoidal signal with an amplitude of 400 mVpp@13 Hz was employed for detection. The positions of the ground electrodes in the Laplacian electrode array were varied, alongside the reference electrode positions in the case of the traditional electrodes. Subsequently, the spatial distribution of the 13 Hz source frequency component was extracted and subjected to comprehensive analysis.Results With varying ground electrode positions, the spatial distribution of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) among Laplacian electrodes maintains remarkable consistency, yielding a correlation coefficient of 0.94. In contrast, for traditional electrodes, the correlation coefficient for SNR distribution under distinct reference electrode positions barely reaches 0.07. While Laplacian electrodes exhibit independence from reference electrodes, traditional counterparts display a notable susceptibility to changes in reference electrode positions. Comparing amplitude’s 3 dB attenuation area ratio, Laplacian electrodes showcase a mere 2.1% reduction, a significantly favorable outcome when juxtaposed with the 6.9% reduction evident in traditional electrodes. Similarly, the SNR’s 3 dB attenuation area ratio for Laplacian electrodes is a mere 1.0%, contrasting with the considerably higher figure of 30.1% for traditional electrodes.Conclusion Laplacian electrodes remain impervious to reference electrode influence, displaying distinctive reference-independent attributes, in addition to boasting a heightened spatial resolution. These characteristics imbue them with the capacity to achieve heightened precision in localizing brain electrical activities, thus constituting a cornerstone for the integration of Laplacian electrodes into brain-computer interfaces (BCIs).