No abstract

Although it ranks among the oldest tools in neuroscientific research, electroencephalography (EEG) still forms the method of choice in a wide variety of clinical and research applications. In the context of brain–computer interfacing (BCI), EEG recently has become a tool to enhance human–machine interaction. EEG could be employed in a wider range of environments, especially for the use of BCI systems in a clinical context or at the homes of patients. However, the application of EEG in these contexts is impeded by the cumbersome preparation of the electrodes with conductive gel that is necessary to lower the impedance between electrodes and scalp. Dry electrodes could provide a solution to this barrier and allow for EEG applications outside the laboratory. In addition, dry electrodes may reduce the time needed for neurological exams in clinical practice. This study evaluates a prototype of a three-channel dry electrode EEG system, comparing it to state-of-the-art conventional EEG electrodes. Two experimental paradigms were used: first, event-related potentials (ERP) were investigated with a variant of the oddball paradigm. Second, features of the frequency domain were compared by a paradigm inducing occipital alpha. Furthermore, both paradigms were used to evaluate BCI classification accuracies of both EEG systems. Amplitude and temporal structure of ERPs as well as features in the frequency domain did not differ significantly between the EEG systems. BCI classification accuracies were equally high in both systems when the frequency domain was considered. With respect to the oddball classification accuracy, there were slight differences between the wet and dry electrode systems. We conclude that the tested dry electrodes were capable to detect EEG signals with good quality and that these signals can be used for research or BCI applications. Easy to handle electrodes may help to foster the use of EEG among a wider range of potential users.

Brain-computer interface (BCI) systems are usually applied in highly controlled environments such as research laboratories or clinical setups. However, many BCI-based applications are implemented in more complex environments. For example, patients might want to use a BCI system at home, and users without disabilities could benefit from BCI systems in special working environments. In these contexts, it might be more difficult to reliably infer information about brain activity, because many intervening factors add up and disturb the BCI feature space. One solution for this problem would be adding context awareness to the system. We propose to augment the available information space with additional channels carrying information about the user state, the environment and the technical system. In particular, passive BCI systems seem to be capable of adding highly relevant context information-otherwise covert aspects of user state. In this paper, we present a theoretical framework based on general human-machine system research for adding context awareness to a BCI system. Building on that, we present results from a study on a passive BCI, which allows access to the covert aspect of user state related to the perceived loss of control. This study is a proof of concept and demonstrates that context awareness could beneficially be implemented in and combined with a BCI system or a general human-machine system. The EEG data from this experiment are available for public download at www.phypa.org.

Anticipation of targets in the left or right hemifield leads to alpha modulations in posterior brain areas. Recently using magnetoencephalography, we showed increased right auditory alpha activity when attention was cued ipsilaterally. Here, we investigated the issue how cue validity itself influences oscillatory alpha activity. Acoustic cues were presented either to the right or left ear, followed by a compound dichotically presented target plus distractor. The preceding cue was either informative (75% validity) or uninformative (50%) about the location of the upcoming target. Cue validity × side-related alpha modulations were identified in pre- and posttarget periods in a right lateralized network, comprising auditory and nonauditory regions. This replicates and extends our previous finding of the right hemispheric dominance of auditory attentional modulations. Importantly, effective connectivity analysis showed that, in the pretarget period, this effect is accompanied by a pronounced and time-varying connectivity pattern of the right auditory cortex to the right intraparietal sulcus (IPS), with influence of IPS on superior temporal gyrus dominating at earlier intervals of the cue-target period. Our study underlines the assumption that alpha oscillations may play a similar functional role in auditory cortical regions as reported in other sensory modalities and suggests that these effects may be mediated via IPS.