TY - JOUR T1 - Voluntary brain regulation and communication with electrocorticogram signals. JF - Epilepsy Behav Y1 - 2008 A1 - Hinterberger, T. A1 - Widman, Guido A1 - Lal, T.N A1 - Jeremy Jeremy Hill A1 - Tangermann, Michael A1 - Rosenstiel, W. A1 - Schölkopf, B A1 - Elger, Christian A1 - Niels Birbaumer KW - Adult KW - Biofeedback, Psychology KW - Cerebral Cortex KW - Communication Aids for Disabled KW - Dominance, Cerebral KW - Electroencephalography KW - Epilepsies, Partial KW - Female KW - Humans KW - Imagination KW - Male KW - Middle Aged KW - Motor Activity KW - Motor Cortex KW - Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted KW - Software KW - Somatosensory Cortex KW - Theta Rhythm KW - User-Computer Interface KW - Writing AB -

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) can be used for communication in writing without muscular activity or for learning to control seizures by voluntary regulation of brain signals such as the electroencephalogram (EEG). Three of five patients with epilepsy were able to spell their names with electrocorticogram (ECoG) signals derived from motor-related areas within only one or two training sessions. Imagery of finger or tongue movements was classified with support-vector classification of autoregressive coefficients derived from the ECoG signals. After training of the classifier, binary classification responses were used to select letters from a computer-generated menu. Offline analysis showed increased theta activity in the unsuccessful patients, whereas the successful patients exhibited dominant sensorimotor rhythms that they could control. The high spatial resolution and increased signal-to-noise ratio in ECoG signals, combined with short training periods, may offer an alternative for communication in complete paralysis, locked-in syndrome, and motor restoration.

VL - 13 UR - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18495541 IS - 2 ER -