Week-long visuomotor coordination and relaxation trainings do not increase sensorimotor rhythms (SMR) based brain-computer interface performance.

Week-long visuomotor coordination and relaxation trainings do not increase sensorimotor rhythms (SMR) based brain-computer interface performance. Behav Brain Res. 2019 Jun 01;: Authors: Botrel L, Kübler A Abstract Brain computer interfaces (BCI) translate brain activity into control signals or commands for a device. Motor imagery of the limbs allows for modulating the sensorimotor rhythms (SMR), but there are up to 30% of the participants for whom electroencephalography (EEG) based SMR-BCI cannot detect any imagery-related changes. Individual variables, such as ability to concentrate on a task and error duration in a two-hand visuomotor coordination (VMC) task have been previously found to predict accuracy in an SMR-BCI. A first study attempted to substantiate those predictors by introducing a 30minutes relaxation or VMC training period prior to an SMR-BCI session, but performance did not increase when compared to a control group. As the predictor training may have been too short, we applied 4 such training sessions on consecutive days in the current study. In a pre-post design, SMR-BCI accuracy of n=39 participants increased from session 1 before to session 2 after the predictor training. While the manipulation of the predictor variables was successful, there was no effect on SMR-BCI performance. BCI accuracy correlated positively with the neurophysiological SMR predictor identified by Blankertz et al. [3], consolidating its predic...
Source: Behavioural Brain Research - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Behav Brain Res Source Type: research