Instant classification for the spatially-coded BCI

PLoS One. 2022 Apr 28;17(4):e0267548. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0267548. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

The spatially-coded SSVEP BCI exploits changes in the topography of the steady-state visual evoked response to visual flicker stimulation in the extrafoveal field of view. In contrast to frequency-coded SSVEP BCIs, the operator does not gaze into any flickering lights; therefore, this paradigm can reduce visual fatigue. Other advantages include high classification accuracies and a simplified stimulation setup. Previous studies of the paradigm used stimulation intervals of a fixed duration. For frequency-coded SSVEP BCIs, it has been shown that dynamically adjusting the trial duration can increase the system's information transfer rate (ITR). We therefore investigated whether a similar increase could be achieved for spatially-coded BCIs by applying dynamic stopping methods. To this end we introduced a new stopping criterion which combines the likelihood of the classification result and its stability across larger data windows. Whereas the BCI achieved an average ITR of 28.4±6.4 bits/min with fixed intervals, dynamic intervals increased the performance to 81.1±44.4 bits/min. Users were able to maintain performance up to 60 minutes of continuous operation. We suggest that the dynamic response time might have worked as a kind of temporal feedback which allowed operators to optimize their brain signals and compensate fatigue.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Brain / physiology
  • Brain-Computer Interfaces*
  • Electroencephalography / methods
  • Evoked Potentials, Visual
  • Photic Stimulation / methods

Grants and funding

The work described in this paper was supported by the German research Foundation (DFG www.dfg.de) through project TRR 169/B1. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.