TY - JOUR T1 - Transition from the locked in to the completely locked-in state: a physiological analysis. JF - Clin Neurophysiol Y1 - 2011 A1 - Murguialday, A Ramos A1 - Jeremy Jeremy Hill A1 - Bensch, M A1 - Martens, S M M A1 - S Halder A1 - Nijboer, F A1 - Schoelkopf, Bernhard A1 - Niels Birbaumer A1 - Gharabaghi, A KW - Adult KW - Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis KW - Area Under Curve KW - Brain KW - Communication Aids for Disabled KW - Disease Progression KW - Electroencephalography KW - Electromyography KW - Humans KW - Male KW - Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted KW - User-Computer Interface AB -

OBJECTIVE: 

To clarify the physiological and behavioral boundaries between locked-in (LIS) and the completely locked-in state (CLIS) (no voluntary eye movements, no communication possible) through electrophysiological data and to secure brain-computer-interface (BCI) communication.

METHODS: 

Electromyography from facial muscles, external anal sphincter (EAS), electrooculography and electrocorticographic data during different psychophysiological tests were acquired to define electrophysiological differences in an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patient with an intracranially implanted grid of 112 electrodes for nine months while the patient passed from the LIS to the CLIS.

RESULTS: 

At the very end of the LIS there was no facial muscle activity, nor external anal sphincter but eye control. Eye movements were slow and lasted for short periods only. During CLIS event related brainpotentials (ERP) to passive limb movements and auditory stimuli were recorded, vibrotactile stimulation of different body parts resulted in no ERP response.

CONCLUSIONS: 

The results presented contradict the commonly accepted assumption that the EAS is the last remaining muscle under voluntary control and demonstrate complete loss of eye movements in CLIS. The eye muscle was shown to be the last muscle group under voluntary control. The findings suggest ALS as a multisystem disorder, even affecting afferent sensory pathways.

SIGNIFICANCE: 

Auditory and proprioceptive brain-computer-interface (BCI) systems are the only remaining communication channels in CLIS.

VL - 122 UR - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20888292 IS - 5 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - A Brain Computer Interface with Online Feedback based on Magnetoencephalography. Y1 - 2005 A1 - Lal, T.N A1 - Schroeder, Michael A1 - Jeremy Jeremy Hill A1 - Preissl, Hubert A1 - Hinterberger, T. A1 - Mellinger, Jürgen A1 - Bogdan, Martin A1 - Rosenstiel, W. A1 - Niels Birbaumer A1 - Schoelkopf, Bernhard KW - Brain Computer Interfaces KW - User Modelling for Computer Human Interaction AB -

The aim of this paper is to show that machine learning techniques can be used to derive a classifying function for human brain signal data measured by magnetoencephalography (MEG), for the use in a brain computer interface (BCI). This is especially helpful for evaluating quickly whether a BCI approach based on electroencephalography, on which training may be slower due to lower signalto-noise ratio, is likely to succeed. We apply RCE and regularized SVMs to the experimental data of ten healthy subjects performing a motor imagery task. Four subjects were able to use a trained classifier to write a short name. Further analysis gives evidence that the proposed imagination task is suboptimal for the possible extension to a multiclass interface. To the best of our knowledge this paper is the first working online MEG-based BCI and is therefore a “proof of concept”.

UR - http://www.researchgate.net/publication/221346004_A_brain_computer_interface_with_online_feedback_based_on_magnetoencephalography ER -