The Berlin brain-computer interface: EEG-based communication without subject training

• Published in: IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering Vol. 14; no. 2; pp. 147 - 152
• Main Authors: Blankertz, B., Dornhege, G., Krauledat, M., Muller, K.-R., Kunzmann, V., Losch, F., Curio, G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01.06.2006; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Algorithms; Brain computer interfaces; Brain-computer interface (BCI); classification; common spatial patterns; Communication Aids for Disabled; Communication system control; Computer User Training - methods; Control systems; electroencephalogram (EEG); Electroencephalography; Electroencephalography - methods; event-related desynchronization (ERD); Evoked Potentials - physiology; Foot; Germany; Humans; Imagination - physiology; Imaging phantoms; Information analysis; information transfer rate; Learning - physiology; Machine learning; Man-Machine Systems; Movement - physiology; Nervous system; Neuromuscular Diseases - rehabilitation; Pattern analysis; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; readiness potential (RP); single-trial analysis; Studies; Germany
• DOI: 10.1109/TNSRE.2006.875557
• ISSN: 1534-4320

The Berlin Brain-Computer Interface (BBCI) project develops a noninvasive BCI system whose key features are 1) the use of well-established motor competences as control paradigms, 2) high-dimensional features from 128-channel electroencephalogram (EEG), and 3) advanced machine learning techniques. As reported earlier, our experiments demonstrate that very high information transfer rates can be achieved using the readiness potential (RP) when predicting the laterality of upcoming left- versus right-hand movements in healthy subjects. A more recent study showed that the RP similarly accompanies phantom movements in arm amputees, but the signal strength decreases with longer loss of the limb. In a complementary approach, oscillatory features are used to discriminate imagined movements (left hand versus right hand versus foot). In a recent feedback study with six healthy subjects with no or very little experience with BCI control, three subjects achieved an information transfer rate above 35 bits per minute (bpm), and further two subjects above 24 and 15 bpm, while one subject could not achieve any BCI control. These results are encouraging for an EEG-based BCI system in untrained subjects that is independent of peripheral nervous system activity and does not rely on evoked potentials even when compared to results with very well-trained subjects operating other BCI systems.