Mindfulness Improves Brain-Computer Interface Performance by Increasing Control Over Neural Activity in the Alpha Band.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Stieger JR
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7727383 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) translate brain signals into commands to external effectors, and mainly target severely disabled users. The usability of BCIs may be improved by reducing their major constraints, such as the necessity for special training sessions to initially calibrate and later keep up to date the neural signal decoders. In this study, we show that it is possible to train and update BCI decoders during free use of motor BCIs. In addition to the neural signal decoder controlling effectors (control decoder), one more classifier is proposed to detect neural correlates of BCI motor task performances (MTP). MTP decoders reveal whether the actions performed by BCI effectors matched the user's intentions. The combined outputs of MTP and control decoders allow forming training datasets to update the control decoder online and in real time during free use of BCIs. The usability of the proposed auto-adaptive BCI (aaBCI) is demonstrated for two principle BCIs paradigms: with discrete outputs (4 classes BCI, virtual 4-limb exoskeleton), and with continuous outputs (cursor 2D control). The proof of concept was performed in an online simulation study using an ECoG dataset collected from a tetraplegic during a BCI clinical trial. The control decoder reached a multiclass area under the ROC curve of 0.7404 using aaBCI, compared to a chance level of 0.5173 and to 0.8187 for supervised training for the multiclass BCI, and a cosine similarity of 0.1211 using aaBCI, compared to a chance level of 0.0036 and to 0.2002 for supervised training for the continuous BCI.
| S-EPMC9734147 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Brain computer interfaces allow users to preform various tasks using only the electrical activity of the brain. BCI applications often present the user a set of stimuli and record the corresponding electrical response. The BCI algorithm will then have to decode the acquired brain response and perform the desired task. In rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) tasks, the subject is presented with a continuous stream of images containing rare target images among standard images, while the algorithm has to detect brain activity associated with target images. In this work, we suggest a multimodal neural network for RSVP tasks. The network operates on the brain response and on the initiating stimulus simultaneously, providing more information for the BCI application. We present two variants of the multimodal network, a supervised model, for the case when the targets are known in advanced, and a semi-supervised model for when the targets are unknown. We test the neural networks with a RSVP experiment on satellite imagery carried out with two subjects. The multimodal networks achieve a significant performance improvement in classification metrics. We visualize what the networks has learned and discuss the advantages of using neural network models for BCI applications.
| S-EPMC5168930 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Existing intracortical brain computer interfaces (iBCIs) transform neural activity into control signals capable of restoring movement to persons with paralysis. However, the accuracy of the 'decoder' at the heart of the iBCI typically degrades over time due to turnover of recorded neurons. To compensate, decoders can be recalibrated, but this requires the user to spend extra time and effort to provide the necessary data, then learn the new dynamics. As the recorded neurons change, one can think of the underlying movement intent signal being expressed in changing coordinates. If a mapping can be computed between the different coordinate systems, it may be possible to stabilize the original decoder's mapping from brain to behavior without recalibration. We previously proposed a method based on Generalized Adversarial Networks (GANs), called 'Adversarial Domain Adaptation Network' (ADAN), which aligns the distributions of latent signals within underlying low-dimensional neural manifolds. However, we tested ADAN on only a very limited dataset. Here we propose a method based on Cycle-Consistent Adversarial Networks (Cycle-GAN), which aligns the distributions of the full-dimensional neural recordings. We tested both Cycle-GAN and ADAN on data from multiple monkeys and behaviors and compared them to a third, quite different method based on Procrustes alignment of axes provided by Factor Analysis. All three methods are unsupervised and require little data, making them practical in real life. Overall, Cycle-GAN had the best performance and was easier to train and more robust than ADAN, making it ideal for stabilizing iBCI systems over time.
| S-EPMC10446822 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundTraditional teaching concepts in medical education do not take full advantage of current information technology. We aimed to objectively determine the impact of Tablet PC enhanced training on learning experience and MKSAP® (medical knowledge self-assessment program) exam performance.MethodsIn this single center, prospective, controlled study final year medical students and medical residents doing an inpatient service rotation were alternatingly assigned to either the active test (Tablet PC with custom multimedia education software package) or traditional education (control) group, respectively. All completed an extensive questionnaire to collect their socio-demographic data, evaluate educational status, computer affinity and skills, problem solving, eLearning knowledge and self-rated medical knowledge. Both groups were MKSAP® tested at the beginning and the end of their rotation. The MKSAP® score at the final exam was the primary endpoint.ResultsData of 55 (tablet n = 24, controls n = 31) male 36.4%, median age 28 years, 65.5% students, were evaluable. The mean MKSAP® score improved in the tablet PC (score Δ + 8 SD: 11), but not the control group (score Δ- 7, SD: 11), respectively. After adjustment for baseline score and confounders the Tablet PC group showed on average 11% better MKSAP® test results compared to the control group (p<0.001). The most commonly used resources for medical problem solving were journal articles looked up on PubMed or Google®, and books.ConclusionsOur study provides evidence, that tablet computer based integrated training and clinical practice enhances medical education and exam performance. Larger, multicenter trials are required to independently validate our data. Residency and fellowship directors are encouraged to consider adding portable computer devices, multimedia content and introduce blended learning to their respective training programs.
| S-EPMC5378330 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Performance variation is a critical issue in motor imagery brain-computer interface (MI-BCI), and various neurophysiological, psychological, and anatomical correlates have been reported in the literature. Although the main aim of such studies is to predict MI-BCI performance for the prescreening of poor performers, studies which focus on the user's sense of the motor imagery process and directly estimate MI-BCI performance through the user's self-prediction are lacking. In this study, we first test each user's self-prediction idea regarding motor imagery experimental datasets. Fifty-two subjects participated in a classical, two-class motor imagery experiment and were asked to evaluate their easiness with motor imagery and to predict their own MI-BCI performance. During the motor imagery experiment, an electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded; however, no feedback on motor imagery was given to subjects. From EEG recordings, the offline classification accuracy was estimated and compared with several questionnaire scores of subjects, as well as with each subject's self-prediction of MI-BCI performance. The subjects' performance predictions during motor imagery task showed a high positive correlation (r = 0.64, p < 0.01). Interestingly, it was observed that the self-prediction became more accurate as the subjects conducted more motor imagery tasks in the Correlation coefficient (pre-task to 2nd run: r = 0.02 to r = 0.54, p < 0.01) and root mean square error (pre-task to 3rd run: 17.7% to 10%, p < 0.01). We demonstrated that subjects may accurately predict their MI-BCI performance even without feedback information. This implies that the human brain is an active learning system and, by self-experiencing the endogenous motor imagery process, it can sense and adopt the quality of the process. Thus, it is believed that users may be able to predict MI-BCI performance and results may contribute to a better understanding of low performance and advancing BCI.
| S-EPMC5818431 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Laboratory demonstrations of brain-computer interface (BCI) systems show promise for reducing disability associated with paralysis by directly linking neural activity to the control of assistive devices. Surveys of potential users have revealed several key BCI performance criteria for clinical translation of such a system. Of these criteria, high accuracy, short response latencies, and multi-functionality are three key characteristics directly impacted by the neural decoding component of the BCI system, the algorithm that translates neural activity into control signals. Building a decoder that simultaneously addresses these three criteria is complicated because optimizing for one criterion may lead to undesirable changes in the other criteria. Unfortunately, there has been little work to date to quantify how decoder design simultaneously affects these performance characteristics. Here, we systematically explore the trade-off between accuracy, response latency, and multi-functionality for discrete movement classification using two different decoding strategies-a support vector machine (SVM) classifier which represents the current state-of-the-art for discrete movement classification in laboratory demonstrations and a proposed deep neural network (DNN) framework. We utilized historical intracortical recordings from a human tetraplegic study participant, who imagined performing several different hand and finger movements. For both decoders, we found that response time increases (i.e., slower reaction) and accuracy decreases as the number of functions increases. However, we also found that both the increase of response times and the decline in accuracy with additional functions is less for the DNN than the SVM. We also show that data preprocessing steps can affect the performance characteristics of the two decoders in drastically different ways. Finally, we evaluated the performance of our tetraplegic participant using the DNN decoder in real-time to control functional electrical stimulation (FES) of his paralyzed forearm. We compared his performance to that of able-bodied participants performing the same task, establishing a quantitative target for ideal BCI-FES performance on this task. Cumulatively, these results help quantify BCI decoder performance characteristics relevant to potential users and the complex interactions between them.
| S-EPMC6232881 | biostudies-literature
Project description:When researchers evaluate brain-computer interface (BCI) systems, we want quantitative answers to questions such as: How good is the system's performance? How good does it need to be? and: Is it capable of reaching the desired level in future? In response to the current lack of objective, quantitative, study-independent approaches, we introduce methods that help to address such questions. We identified three challenges: (I) the need for efficient measurement techniques that adapt rapidly and reliably to capture a wide range of performance levels; (II) the need to express results in a way that allows comparison between similar but non-identical tasks; (III) the need to measure the extent to which certain components of a BCI system (e.g. the signal processing pipeline) not only support BCI performance, but also potentially restrict the maximum level it can reach.For challenge (I), we developed an automatic staircase method that adjusted task difficulty adaptively along a single abstract axis. For challenge (II), we used the rate of information gain between two Bernoulli distributions: one reflecting the observed success rate, the other reflecting chance performance estimated by a matched random-walk method. This measure includes Wolpaw's information transfer rate as a special case, but addresses the latter's limitations including its restriction to item-selection tasks. To validate our approach and address challenge (III), we compared four healthy subjects' performance using an EEG-based BCI, a 'Direct Controller' (a high-performance hardware input device), and a 'Pseudo-BCI Controller' (the same input device, but with control signals processed by the BCI signal processing pipeline).Our results confirm the repeatability and validity of our measures, and indicate that our BCI signal processing pipeline reduced attainable performance by about 33% (21 bits min(-1)).Our approach provides a flexible basis for evaluating BCI performance and its limitations, across a wide range of tasks and task difficulties.
| S-EPMC4113089 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Motor imagery (MI) is an endogenous mental process and is commonly used as an electroencephalogram (EEG)-based brain-computer interface (BCI) strategy. Previous studies of P300 and MI-based (without online feedback) BCI have shown that mental states like fatigue can negatively affect participants' EEG signatures. However, exogenous stimuli cause visual fatigue, which might have a different mechanism than endogenous tasks do. Furthermore, subjects could adjust themselves if online feedback is provided. In this sense, it is still unclear how fatigue affects online MI-based BCI performance. With this question, 12 healthy subjects are recruited to investigate this issue, and an MI-based online BCI experiment is performed for four sessions on different days. The first session is for training, and the other three sessions differ in rest condition and duration-no rest, 16-min eyes-open rest, and 16-min eyes-closed rest-arranged in a pseudo-random order. Multidimensional fatigue inventory (MFI) and short stress state questionnaire (SSSQ) reveal that general fatigue, mental fatigue, and distress have increased, while engagement has decreased significantly within certain sessions. However, the BCI performances, including percent valid correct (PVC) and information transfer rate (ITR), show no significant change across 400 trials. The results suggest that although the repetitive MI task has affected subjects' mental states, their BCI performances and feature separability within a session are not affected by the task significantly. Further electrophysiological analysis reveals that the alpha-band power in the sensorimotor area has an increasing tendency, while event-related desynchronization (ERD) modulation level has a decreasing trend. During the rest time, no physiological difference has been found in the eyes-open rest condition; on the contrary, the alpha-band power increase and subsequent decrease appear in the eyes-closed rest condition. In summary, this experiment shows evidence that mental states can change dramatically in the intensive MI-BCI practice, but BCI performances could be maintained.
| S-EPMC8678598 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe domain of brain-computer interface (BCI) technology has experienced significant expansion in recent years. However, the field continues to face a pivotal challenge due to the dearth of high-quality datasets. This lack of robust datasets serves as a bottleneck, constraining the progression of algorithmic innovations and, by extension, the maturation of the BCI field.FindingsThis study details the acquisition and compilation of electroencephalogram data across 3 distinct dual-frequency steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) paradigms, encompassing over 100 participants. Each experimental condition featured 40 individual targets with 5 repetitions per target, culminating in a comprehensive dataset consisting of 21,000 trials of dual-frequency SSVEP recordings. We performed an exhaustive validation of the dataset through signal-to-noise ratio analyses and task-related component analysis, thereby substantiating its reliability and effectiveness for classification tasks.ConclusionsThe extensive dataset presented is set to be a catalyst for the accelerated development of BCI technologies. Its significance extends beyond the BCI sphere and holds considerable promise for propelling research in psychology and neuroscience. The dataset is particularly invaluable for discerning the complex dynamics of binocular visual resource distribution.
| S-EPMC11304967 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Alpha-band oscillatory activity over occipito-parietal areas is involved in shaping perceptual and cognitive processes, with a growing body of electroencephalographic (EEG) evidence indicating that pre-stimulus alpha-band amplitude relates to the subjective perceptual experience, but not to objective measures of visual task performance (discrimination accuracy). The primary aim of the present transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) study was to investigate whether causality can be established for this relationship, using rhythmic (alpha-band) TMS entrainment protocols. It was anticipated that pre-stimulus 10 Hz-TMS would induce changes in subjective awareness ratings but not accuracy, in the visual hemifield contralateral to TMS. To test this, we administered 10 Hz-TMS over the right intraparietal sulcus prior to visual stimulus presentation in 17 participants, while measuring their objective performance and subjective awareness in a visual discrimination task. Arrhythmic and 10 Hz sham-TMS served as control conditions (within-participant design). Resting EEG was used to record individual alpha frequency (IAF). A study conducted in parallel to ours with a similar design but reported after we completed data collection informed further, secondary analyses for a causal relationship between pre-stimulus alpha-frequency and discrimination accuracy. This was explored through a regression analysis between rhythmic-TMS alpha-pace relative to IAF and performance measures. Our results revealed that contrary to our primary expectation, pre-stimulus 10 Hz-TMS did not affect subjective measures of performance, nor accuracy, relative to control-TMS. This null result is in accord with a recent finding showing that for influencing subjective measures of performance, alpha-TMS needs to be applied post-stimulus. In addition, our secondary analysis showed that IAF was positively correlated with task accuracy across participants, and that 10 Hz-TMS effects on accuracy-but not awareness ratings-depended on IAF: The slower (or faster) the IAF, relative to the fixed 10 Hz TMS frequency, the stronger the TMS-induced performance improvement (or worsening), indicating that 10 Hz-TMS produced a gain (or a loss) in individual performance, directly depending on TMS-pace relative to IAF. In support of recent reports, this is evidence for alpha-frequency playing a causal role in perceptual sensitivity likely through regulating the speed of sensory sampling.
| S-EPMC9247279 | biostudies-literature