EEG-Based Brain-Computer Interfaces: Cognitive Analysis and Control Applications

book.

Chapter 1

Introduction

Dipali Bansal; Rashima Mahajan    Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies, Faridabad, India

Abstract

Our brain houses complex interactions between genes, neurons, proteins, and tiny circuits to produce thoughts, emotions, and behavior. Advancement in technologies especially over the past decades has enabled neuroscientists to understand the functions and hence the diseases and abnormal behavior of the nervous system to an extent. Technologies have enabled communication between man and machines which are facilitating interactive applications. Most important of these are the brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) which have the capabilities to promise alternate means of communications and control even in acute cases of disability. Brain activity processed by BCI systems is usually measured using electroencephalography (EEG). This chapter aims at providing a rationale behind working on BCI technologies, its broad classification, EEG-based basic acquisition system and brain patterns, eyeblink-based BCI analysis and control, and lists the objectives set for this book.

Keywords

Brain-computer Interface; EEG; Signal acquisition; BCI technologies; BCI applications; Eyeblink-based BCI

Contents

1.1Rationale

1.1.1BCI Success Stories

1.1.2BCI Market Analysis

1.2Technical Overview

1.2.1Brain Anatomy

1.2.2From Brain to Computer

1.2.3Previous Work Related to Voluntary Eyeblink-Based BCI and Control

1.3Objectives

References

1.1 Rationale

Computer is a manifestation of the human brain power.

It was a start of the long drive for my neighbor David and his family in a nice weather. It was a well thought out vacation driving out in the Sedan. All were excited and then touching 100 miles per hour was a song on a wide highway. And then came the crash. An overenthusiastic driver tried to overtake and ended up hitting the Sedan. All were safe ending with minor injuries. David paralyzed neck downwards.

A morning jog in the park. My student Roger just wanted to take a detour today through the downtown street being a weekend. Who knew that the greed of a young drug addict to get those extra bucks for his kick would end up with Roger being mugged with a heavy hit on the head. All senses intact but body immobile.

Above are two instances which would wreck a healthy individual's life including the near and dear ones. Both David and Roger were intellectuals excelling in their fields of work as financial consultant and technocrat. Highly functional brains but immobilized body due to incidents beyond their control. In this era, where ideas and knowledge are at premium, would it be appropriate to allow the individuals of the clan of David and Roger to lose their knowledge and life of oblivion.

Human brain power has manifested a device called computer to not only help human being in its endeavor to overcome its limitation but also surpass and achieve tasks much beyond what is humanly possible. Brain and computer interface is an exciting field, which can help in taking this association of two entities namely brain and computer to its logical conclusion.

Brain and computer interface opens lot of vistas of collaboration where in the master-slave relationship can be transformed into a relationship between two intellectual entities. A classic example is the renowned scientist Stephen Hawking, an English theoretical physicist, and cosmologist. Contracted with motor neuron disease at a prime age of youth at 21, was given 2 years to live. In spite of the early onset and the gradual paralysis, he was still able to communicate through a cheek switch which is a speech generating device using cheek muscles that receives signal from his brain. He has been using lot of assistive technologies including brain-controlled interfaces to communicate with his computer. He has been awarded with many Honorary degrees, has written books and is considered a living legend in the field of physics since Einstein. His knowledge was a gift for the welfare of mankind.

Brain and computer interface is also helping people lead an independent life and go on with their daily routine-like life and making people independent. The brain-computer interface (BCI) is very practical for severely disabled people who can use the BCI systems to get things done at home, office, and even more. People can even be involved in their passion for music, play instruments, and also video games.

The possibilities are immense.

1.1.1 BCI Success Stories

Human brain is often called The Final Frontier of Science as it is one of the most complex structures in the known universe. It not only gives us sense of ourselves and our surroundings but also processes sensory data, makes humans think and emote, controls muscle movement, enables secretion of body fluids and hormones, supports breathe, maintains body temperature, regulates metabolic rate, and records the impressions of events throughout our life. The complexity of the brain arises from the innumerous nerve cells arranged in intricate manner coordinating with the entire human body through the nervous network. The experimental study conducted by the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research reaffirms that while each part of the brain is responsible for certain task(s), the various parts of the brain coordinate to work together. Brain has intrigued philosophers and scientists from as early as 387 BCE when Plato suggested that mental processes are controlled through the brain. It undoubtedly is the root of human intelligence and does so even more than a machine can, it builds on and continuously improves whatever has been invented. Advancement in technologies especially over the past decades has enabled neuroscientists to understand how the brain functions and hence the diseases and abnormal behavior of the nervous system to an extent. Recent research and success stories related to brain and mind controlled applications are quoted below.

Researchers Rao et al. (2014) at the University of Washington demonstrated that it is possible to convey information taken out from one person's mind directly to another individual's mind and control desired hand motions of another person in less than a second. This has been made realistic through direct mind-to-mind communiqué over internet. This could help in creating a missing patch in the subject and making good a brain-damaged person. Another research led by Doo Yeon Kim and Rudolph Tanzi (2014) at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital created Alzheimer's in a dish. The research has the potential to accelerate new drug testing by creating a set of events on human brain cells by reproducing vital cell structures in a Petri dish. The work published in the journal Nature leads the way for other scientists to employ this unique approach to research superior methods for neurodegenerative disorders. In 2013, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers planted false memories in a mouse by linking one memory with dissimilar memory and actually replacing negative memory with a positive one. The research was led by Susumu Tonegawa, Nobel Prize winner. This could help chronic patients come out of acute stress syndrome.

Fading memory or memory loss is a very common phenomenon faced by a majority of the population. The known reasons are aging, Alzheimer’s, a brain stroke, or some unknown causes. Dr. Theodere Berger from the University of Southern California has toiled for 35 years and done exemplary work by finally devising memory enhancing implants. The memory neurons are part of the hippocampus, a deep and protected part of the brain. The input and output signals flow as an electrical signal from CA3 to CA1 hippocampus nodes, respectively. Initially, algorithms were written based on these signals in rats trained for a particular activity. The rats were drugged and tiny electrode implants programed based on the algorithms recorded returned same results as if the rats had perfect memory. A similar thing was experimented successfully on monkeys. The success motivated though cautiously prompted Dr. Theodore to perform research with many epilepsy patients. The research returned 80% positive results in these patients with the implants giving similar memory predictions. The work is however just a beginning as the same has been applied for a single activity only. New and different set of algorithms needs to be defined for other activities. The similarity in such codes has to be studied for different individuals before using this as a probable step to aid memory in compromised cases. Lot more research needs to be done to understand the various input vs output signals and algorithms for different situations.

Initial efforts were made at the University of Chicago by Tabot et al. (2013) to develop a touch receptive robotic prosthetic hand controlled by brain signals, thus improving dexterity in motor functions of an arm. A two-way communication is required to restore touch sensation, that is, brain sends signal to limb and the limb sends back sensory signals to the brain by processing and reproducing brain patterns generated by external stimulation. In continuation to this, Science Daily (2017, April 25) reported that rehabilitation physicians from the Netherlands have given Johan Baggerman (2010), who lost his arm in a mishap with a click-on robotic arm, the first of its kind prosthetic limb in the world. This prosthetic arm connects directly onto a metal rod in the bone itself and thus saves from a lot of inherent troubles of slipping off, skin problems, uneasy prosthetic socket, etc. This innovative arm can interact with user's nerves and allows him/her to control it using their mind and provides larger range of motion. Further to this, Clemente et al. (2017) have demonstrated recently that amputees implanted with osseo-integrated prostheses which is attached directly to the skeleton, can resume tangible sensations to unfriendly environments. The subject can perceive and respond better to external stimuli by listening to the vibrations in the prosthetic limb. Touch-sensitive robotic limbs can further assist multifaceted assignments like surgical robots, rescue operations, manufacturing, and service industry (Oddo et al., 2017). Retinal prosthesis, another initiative in this area, is a ray of hope for millions of people worldwide who are blind or who experience blindness due to progressive retinal deterioration. Novel approach made by Castaldi et al. (2016) aims to reinstate destroyed retinal function by training the adult brain to see again. In yet another work, Luu et al. (2017) from the University of Houston have revealed recently that noninvasive electroencephalography (EEG)-based BCI technology can assist people relearn to walk after stroke or other spinal cord injuries. They have developed an interface with a virtual walking avatar that can control and improve gait.

It is evident that BCI finds paramount applications in medicine and assistive devices. However, being able to control brain signals has a plethora of exhilarating implications in entertainment and also in daily life. To quote an exciting event of April 2016, BCI technology helped the University of Florida participants to reach the finish line in a drone race where brain signals guided the drone. Think of a video game where your character did exactly as you wished and was in total command of your thoughts. A novel BCI application titled Brain Composer, lets music composition through mind power. Pinegger et al. (2017) experienced an unusual musical tone generated using P300 brain wave, an adapted BCI and software for composing music. Our brain hierarchically processes image of the object that we gaze at and draws significant and complex features to predict what one is imagining or seeing. Horikawa and Kamitani (2017) of the Kyoto University have developed an algorithm to look into one's own imagination or dreams using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signals and deep neural network AI. Science Daily (2013) reported that joint efforts were made by researchers at the University of Essex and NASA to control a virtual spaceship by thoughts alone. They came to the conclusion that BCI can hugely impact virtual reality (VR) and hands-free control applications through brain signal commands of two individuals combined together. Research article in NeuroImage, by Yang et al. (2016) from the Carnegie Mellon University illustrates that different languages when read or decoded generate similar brain patterns. Machine learning algorithm helps in establishing a relation between neural responses generated for a sentence meaning same both in English and Portuguese with a conclusion that BCI systems decipher thoughts and concepts independent of language