Speech stream segregation to control an ERP-based auditory BCI

OBJECTIVE

The use of natural sounds in auditory Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) has been shown to improve classification results and usability. Some auditory BCIs are based on stream segregation, in which the subjects must attend one audio stream and ignore the other(s); these streams include some kind of stimuli to be detected. In this work we focus on Event-Related Potentials (ERP) and study whether providing intelligible content to each audio stream could help the users to better concentrate on the desired stream and so to better attend the target stimuli and to ignore the non-target ones.

APPROACH

In addition to a control condition, two experimental conditions, based on the selective attention and the cocktail party effect, were tested using two simultaneous and spatialized audio streams: i) the condition A2 consisted of an overlap of auditory stimuli (single syllables) on a background consisting of natural speech for each stream, ii) in condition A3, brief alterations of the natural flow of each speech were used as stimuli.

MAIN RESULTS

The two experimental proposals improved the results of the control condition (single words as stimuli without a speech background) both in a cross validation analysis of the calibration part and in the online test. The analysis of the ERP responses also presented better discriminability for the two proposals in comparison to the control condition. The results of subjective questionnaires support the better usability of the first experimental condition.

SIGNIFICANCE

The use of natural speech as background improves the stream segregation in an ERP-based auditory BCI (with significant results in the performance metrics, the ERP waveforms, and in the preference parameter in subjective questionnaires). Future work in the field of ERP-based stream segregation should study the use of natural speech in combination with easily perceived but not distracting stimuli.

Performance Analysis With Different Types of Visual Stimuli in a BCI-Based Speller Under an RSVP Paradigm

Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) systems enable an alternative communication channel for severely-motor disabled patients to interact with their environment using no muscular movements. In recent years, the importance of research into non-gaze dependent brain-computer interface paradigms has been increasing, in contrast to the most frequently studied BCI-based speller paradigm (i.e., row-column presentation, RCP). Several visual modifications that have already been validated under the RCP paradigm for communication purposes have not been validated under the most extended non-gaze dependent rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm. Thus, in the present study, three different sets of stimuli were assessed under RSVP, with the following communication features: white letters (WL), famous faces (FF), neutral pictures (NP). Eleven healthy subjects participated in this experiment, in which the subjects had to go through a calibration phase, an online phase and, finally, a subjective questionnaire completion phase. The results showed that the FF and NP stimuli promoted better performance in the calibration and online phases, being slightly better in the FF paradigm. Regarding the subjective questionnaires, again both FF and NP were preferred by the participants in contrast to the WL stimuli, but this time the NP stimuli scored slightly higher. These findings suggest that the use of FF and NP for RSVP-based spellers could be beneficial to increase information transfer rate in comparison to the most frequently used letter-based stimuli and could represent a promising communication system for individuals with altered ocular-motor function.

P300-Based Brain-Computer Interface Speller: Usability Evaluation of Three Speller Sizes by Severely Motor-Disabled Patients

Brain-computer interface (BCI) spellers allow severe motor-disabled patients to communicate using their brain activity without muscular mobility. Different visual configurations of the widely studied P300-based BCI speller had been assessed with healthy and motor-disabled users. However, the speller size (in terms of cm) had only been assessed for healthy subjects. We think that the speller size might be limiting for some severely motor-disabled patients with restricted head and eye movements. The usability of three speller sizes was assessed for seven patients diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and a participant diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). This is the first usability evaluation of speller size with severely motor-disabled participants. Effectiveness (in the online results) and efficiency (in the workload test) of the medium speller was remarkably better. Satisfaction was significantly the highest with the medium size speller and the lowest with the small size. These results correlate with previously described findings in healthy subjects. In conclusion, the speller size should be considered when designing a speller paradigm, especially for motor-disabled individuals, since it might affect their performance and user experience while controlling a BCI speller.

UMA-BCI Speller: An easily configurable P300 speller tool for end users

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

Some neurodegenerative conditions can severely limit patients' capability to communicate because of the loss of muscular control. Brain-computer interfaces may help in the restoration of communication with these patients, bypassing the muscular activity, so that brain signals can be directly interpreted by a computer. There are many studies regarding brain-controlled spellers; however, these systems do not usually leap out of the lab because of technical and economic requirements. As a consequence, the potential end users do not benefit from these scientific advances in their daily life. The objective of this paper is to present a novel brain-controlled speller designed to be used by patients due to its versatility and ease of use.

METHODS

The brain-computer interface research group of the University of Málaga (UMA-BCI) has developed a speller application based on the well-known P300 potential which can be easily installed, configured and used. The application supports the common P300 paradigms: the Row-Column Paradigm and the Rapid Serial Visual Presentation Paradigm. The inner core of the application is implemented with a widely used and studied platform, BCI2000, which ensures its reliability and allows other researchers to apply modifications at will in order to test new features. Ten naïve volunteers carried out exercises using the application and completed usability tests for evaluation purposes.

RESULTS

New subjects using the application managed to set up and use the proposed speller in less than an hour. The positive results of the evaluation through the usability tests support this application's ease of use.

CONCLUSIONS

A new brain-controlled spelling tool has been presented whose aim is to be used by severely paralyzed patients in their daily lives, as well as by researchers to test new spelling features.