Onishi Akinari, Takano Kouji, Kawase Toshihiro, Ora Hiroki, Kansaku Kenji
Systems Neuroscience Section, Department of Rehabilitation for Brain Function, Research Institute of National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with DisabilitiesTokorozawa, Japan.
Center for Frontier Medical Engineering, Chiba UniversityInage, Japan.
Front Neurosci. 2017 Sep 21;11:522. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00522. eCollection 2017.
Gaze-independent brain computer interfaces (BCIs) are a potential communication tool for persons with paralysis. This study applies affective auditory stimuli to investigate their effects using a P300 BCI. Fifteen able-bodied participants operated the P300 BCI, with positive and negative affective sounds (PA: a meowing cat sound, NA: a screaming cat sound). Permuted stimuli of the positive and negative affective sounds (permuted-PA, permuted-NA) were also used for comparison. Electroencephalography data was collected, and offline classification accuracies were compared. We used a visual analog scale (VAS) to measure positive and negative affective feelings in the participants. The mean classification accuracies were 84.7% for PA and 67.3% for permuted-PA, while the VAS scores were 58.5 for PA and -12.1 for permuted-PA. The positive affective stimulus showed significantly higher accuracy and VAS scores than the negative affective stimulus. In contrast, mean classification accuracies were 77.3% for NA and 76.0% for permuted-NA, while the VAS scores were -50.0 for NA and -39.2 for permuted NA, which are not significantly different. We determined that a positive affective stimulus with accompanying positive affective feelings significantly improved BCI accuracy. Additionally, an ALS patient achieved 90% online classification accuracy. These results suggest that affective stimuli may be useful for preparing a practical auditory BCI system for patients with disabilities.
不依赖注视的脑机接口（BCIs）是瘫痪患者潜在的交流工具。本研究应用情感听觉刺激，使用P300脑机接口来研究其效果。15名身体健全的参与者操作P300脑机接口，伴有积极和消极情感声音（PA：猫叫声，NA：猫的尖叫声）。还使用了积极和消极情感声音的置换刺激（置换-PA，置换-NA）进行比较。收集脑电图数据，并比较离线分类准确率。我们使用视觉模拟量表（VAS）来测量参与者的积极和消极情感感受。PA的平均分类准确率为84.7%，置换-PA为67.3%，而PA的VAS评分为58.5，置换-PA为-12.1。积极情感刺激的准确率和VAS评分显著高于消极情感刺激。相比之下，NA的平均分类准确率为77.3%，置换-NA为76.0%，而NA的VAS评分为-50.0，置换-NA为-39.2，两者无显著差异。我们确定，伴有积极情感感受的积极情感刺激显著提高了脑机接口的准确率。此外，一名肌萎缩侧索硬化症（ALS）患者在线分类准确率达到了90%。这些结果表明，情感刺激可能有助于为残疾患者准备实用的听觉脑机接口系统。
