In recent years, research on Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology for healthy users has attracted considerable interest, and BCI games are especially popular. This study reviews the current status of, and describes future directions, in the field of BCI games. To this end, we conducted a literature search and found that BCI control paradigms using electroencephalographic signals (motor imagery, P300, steady state visual evoked potential and passive approach reading mental state) have been the primary focus of research. We also conducted a survey of nearly three hundred participants that included researchers, game developers and users around the world. From this survey, we found that all three groups (researchers, developers and users) agreed on the significant influence and applicability of BCI and BCI games, and they all selected prostheses, rehabilitation and games as the most promising BCI applications. User and developer groups tended to give low priority to passive BCI and the whole head sensor array. Developers gave higher priorities to “the easiness of playing” and the “development platform” as important elements for BCI games and the market. Based on our assessment, we discuss the critical point at which BCI games will be able to progress from their current stage to widespread marketing to consumers. In conclusion, we propose three critical elements important for expansion of the BCI game market: standards, gameplay and appropriate integration.

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Acoustic and electrical brain stimulations are techniques well known to enhance memory consolidation by driving slow oscillations (SO, < 1Hz) and sleep spindle activity. Recent studies have suggested that the temporal relationship between SO and sleep spindle activity may be an important key to understanding memory consolidation mechanisms. We hypothesized that evoking SO after sleep spindle activity may enhance memory consolidation. To derive these spindle-SO pairs, we delivered acoustic stimulation after sleep spindle detection and investigated its effects on memory consolidation with behavioral tests and analyses of neurophysiological features. Thirteen healthy male subjects (mean ± SD age: 26.3 ± 2.4 years) participated in this study. Subjects took a nap with acoustic stimulation after spindle activity detection and a sham nap without acoustic stimulation. All subjects performed word-pair memorization and finger tapping tasks before and after their nap. We found phase-locked SO and delta (1-4 Hz) activity during the stimulation nap in response to acoustic stimuli, and the subjects had a greater improvement in finger tapping tasks after the stimulation nap than after the sham nap (p = 0.014). We found strong motorlearning enhancement after the stimulation nap, but this effect was limited to the subjects who did not demonstrate evoked spindle activity after their acoustic stimulation. Evoked spindle activity occurred in the up-state following the negative peak in auditory evoked potential (AEP), and this activity was observed only in subjects who had a greater AEP amplitude than normal SO. Based on these results, we suggest that subject-specific stimulation parameters, such as acoustic amplitude and timing, improve motor learning, and are appropriate to drive SO without causing a spindle response.

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